Sonic Highschool: Genesis
by Dark Sorm
Summary: Sonic and his group are attending high school. However, the arrival of a strange new student causes some social ripples. What will come of this? And where the heck is Eggman?
1. Chapter 1

Okay, This is my first attempt at anything like this, so patience and support would be nice. I got the idea for this story from: 40 my own ideas; 30 another fanfic; and 30 from music (weird, I know). But anyways, I am hoping that someone finds this fan fiction interesting, and will give my some tips in any reviews they post. I'm not going to base posting off of number of reviews, I'll post once the next chapter is done. Any spelling mistakes are completely unintentional...

Old Characters: 

Sonic: 15, Grade 11 

Knuckles: 16, Grade 11 

Tails: 12, Grade 9 

Amy Rose: 14, Grade 10 

Sally: 15, Grade 11 

Shadow: 16, Grade 12 

Omega:??, Grade 12 

Rouge: 16, Grade 11 

Vector: 21 (College) 

Espio: 17, Grade 12 

Silver: 16, Grade 11 

Blaze: 16, Grade 11 

Charmy: 12, Grade 7 

Cream: 12, Grade 7 

Eggman: 34 (Professor) 

Bocoe: ??, (assistant) 

Decoe: ??, (assistant) 

New Character: 

Torth:??, Grade 11 

Sonic and cast belong to Sega and their respective owners. Torth belongs to me. Pictures of Torth are viewable on http/darksorm.

Chapter 1

New Guy

"Class, we have a new student today." Sonic groaned. Another one? That made five this month! It was bad enough that he had to attend High School, but all the interruptions made it worse! At least this would be the last one, as there was only a single desk left. Sonic looked, and was relieved to find that it wasn't near him. Good. He hated the whole orientation process. Sighing, he turned his attention back to the front of the class. The teacher had just finished her whole 'be nice to them' speech, and was motioning for the new student to enter. As Sonic watched the student entered through the door. Upside-down. 

Sonic was completely confused. He watched the figure walk along the ceiling like it was the floor, and then flip down to the ground. The teacher, determined to look unfazed, spoke again. "Class, this is your new class mate. Why don't you tell us your name?" The figure nodded. "Torth" The voice was quiet, but not soft. If a voice could be an object, Sonic figured that one would be a sword, or at least a blade. Sonic decided to actually look at the person. He was small, and seemed hunched over. He had yellow eyes, and bright yellow hair, which went from above his eyebrows down to the back of his neck in an unruly mane. He had tall ears. His fur was mainly brown, with yellow highlights. He wore a black hoodie, black pants, and brown gloves, the ends of which disappeared into his sleeves. He had black leather boots, which ended just above his ankles, and were closed with a leather strap. His two most obvious attributes, however, were first, the large brown fox tail with yellow tip, and second, the huge brown wings folded behind his back. Sonic looked hard. There wasn't any species he knew about that had those two features together. The guy had to be a cross breed of some kind. The teacher ushered Torth down the row with the empty desk. As he passed one person, they stuck their foot out. Torth tripped. But before he hit the floor, he slammed his hands down, springing his body into the air he flipped three times, hitting the floor right beside the desk. There, he quietly sat down, and didn't say a word. 

After the first class, Sonic raced out of the room. Dashing around corners, he reached the cafeteria ahead of everyone else. A few minutes later, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy showed up. "Hey how's it going?" Sonic inquired. Knuckles laughed. "Don't get me started! I have ANOTHER essay this week." Tails just grinned. "Easy, as usual." Amy smiled. "Just fine, Sonniku!" The blue hedgehog groaned. He hated that nickname. "How was your class?" Tails piped up. Sonic shrugged. "Boring… Well, we did get a new student." "Really? What are they like?" Sonic recalled the memories. "Um, well, he's hunched over, can walk on ceilings, has wings and a tail, and is really good at acrobatics." Knuckles shook his head. "Did you just say that he walks on ceilings?" Sonic nodded. "Came into the class room that way." "Cool." Knuckles grunted. "Is he a chameleon?" Sonic shook his head. "No, he's some kind of cross breed. Bat and Fox, I think." Knuckles nodded. Tails clapped his hands together. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving!" Sonic looked around. Other students were now about to crowd the halls, so it would be wise to grab their lunch. "Okay! Let's grab some food!" With that, Sonic rushed into the cafeteria, heading for the counter.

Biting hungrily into his sandwich, Sonic held a conversation with Knuckles. Tails ate quietly beside him, while Amy ate while staring dreamily at Sonic. Sonic looked up at one point and spotted some other people he knew entering the cafeteria. Shadow, Rouge, Espio, and Omega entered at the same time. Their group was enough to send everyone a distance of 5 feet away at all times. However, after receiving their lunch, they broke apart. Shadow to his own corner table where he brooded, Espio to his circle of friends, all chameleons, Omega to a wall outlet to recharge (As he didn't need to eat), and Rouge to a sparsely populated table. Just as Sonic looked down, Knuckles nudged him. "Hey is that the guy you were talking about?" Sonic looked up again. There was Torth, slipping through the doors. He quietly grabbed a lunch tray, received his portion, and headed for a deserted table. Sonic looked down again. "Yeah, that's him." He took another bite of sandwich. Tuna wasn't his favorite, but it would do. After a few seconds, however, he heard an argument develop in the line. As he watched, the two people came to blows. One of the combatants grabbed a full lunch tray from on of the watching students and heaved it at his opponent. It missed, but continued along its trajectory, a trajectory which appeared to end directly at Rouge's head. Looking up, she saw the tray, full of various edibles, heading straight for her. However, as everyone watched, the tray never hit.

Rouge opened one eye, as Sonic watched, searching for the missile. Sonic then directed his gaze to where the tray was located. It path of flight had it passing the table Torth was sitting at. He had simply reached out his hand and the tray had slammed into it. However, the tray was not dropping to the floor. Then, Torth flexed his hand, and the tray went back along its original course, except with several times the force. The thrower barely dodged it. The tray smashed into the wall, shattering into pieces. A sudden silence descended on the room. Torth sighed; stood up, dumped the rest of his almost untouched lunch into the garbage, place his tray on the stack, and left without a word. Then, voices erupted from the crowd. Tails, however, jumped from his seat, forcing his way to the broken tray. There was no piece bigger than the average spoon. Picking up one of the pieces, he motioned for Sonic to come. Once the hedgehog arrived, Tails turned the piece over. It had a black char mark on it. 

Sonic didn't get it. "Maybe it was moving fast enough?" He stated. Tails shook his head. He grabbed a few other pieces, all with marks on them. In a few seconds, he had assembled a surprising picture, a hand print, burned into the plastic. Tails spoke. "I noticed a wisp of smoke when the tray hit. He melted it to his hand. Plus, flexing your hand couldn't send the tray fast enough to do this! He must have a sort of energy ability. Something like your speed, but in another category." Sonic slowly nodded. "So you mean this guy can use energy, or something." Tails shrugged. "I'm just analyzing. It might be. I can't say for sure without solid proof." Sonic slowly grinned. "This day is getting interesting. I'd like to find out what he can do!" With that, Sonic leapt up, and dashed out the door. Knuckles, coming up behind Tails, shook his head. "He forgot his tray, bag, and coat again…" 

However, Sonic didn't manage to find the strange guy. When the bell rang, He made his way back to the classroom, grumbling. Once he entered he slapped his forehead. Torth was back at his desk, quietly reading his text. Sitting down, Sonic slipped a quickly scrawled note to Knuckles. After reading the note, which asked if Torth had been there the whole time, Knuckles hid the note and nodded. Sonic bit back a curse. He should have checked, and then he wouldnve, world's" /'t have wasted that much time. Just then, the teacher handed out a surprise pop quiz. Sonic groaned as he looked at the questions. Another 'D', straight up, no sugar. Well, Sonic thought, as he chewed the eraser on the end of his pencil, at least he knew the top three. He quickly jotted down their corresponding answers. The other 7 were beyond him, though… Looking around, he realized the quiz lasted for another 28 minutes. Letting out an audible groan, he scanned everyone else in the room. On the left, Knuckles was busily scribbling, although Sonic knew he would get the same mark. Neither of them was in the top of the class, and Sonic was fine with it that way. Looking to his right, Sally was pondering one of the questions. The blue furred hedgehog let out a sigh. She ALWAYS knew the answers. She was in the top of the class. However, she never gave out any of the answers. Sonic had tried before, but she had stubbornly refused. When later confronted, she said that he had to learn on his own. Then, out of curiosity, Sonic looked over his shoulder at the new guy, Torth. The strange crossbreed was writing busily, and didn't look like he was having any troubles. Weird, thought Sonic. Torth had just entered today. He shouldn't know any of the material! Granted, he had been reading his textbook at lunch, but even so, that wouldn't let him know the material on this quiz. Sonic turned back, slumped in his chair, and closed his eyes. Well, at least he had time for a nap…

When the teacher called out that the quiz was over, Sonic woke with a start. Picking up he paper, he calming walked to the desk, and handed his paper in. Even with his slow walk, he was still the first by a long shot. Then, as the teacher directed the class to study and make notes while she marked the quizzes, Sonic looked at the faces in the room. Knuckles was kicked back in his chair. Sally was still thinking, probably about how she could have done better. Looking behind him, he saw that Torth looked exactly the same as before, writing out notes while staring into his textbook. Sonic decided he should follow suit. He pulled out his text and a sheet of paper. Thinking for a minute, he began writing. A D that he knew was coming wouldnve, world's" /'t be good, and there was another test coming up, and Sonic had promised his uncle (benefactor and makeshift parent), Uncle Chuck, that he would do better. After what felt like ages, the teacher spoke out again, announcing the top 5 scores in ascending order, while passing out the marked quizzes. 3 people Sonic didn't know were 5th, 4th, and 3rd, respectively. Sally came in second. That was a bit of a shock. Sally always got the top score! It was a fact of life! Then, the teacher announced the top score. "The one who did best on the quiz, and whose answers were the most correct was Torth." Sonic turned and stared. He watched as Torth accepted his sheet back, scanned it quickly, placed it in his shoulder bag beside his chair, and then returned to making notes.

After class let out, Sonic headed straight for Knuckles. "What the heck was that all about?" He asked the red echidna. Knuckles shrugged. "I don't know. Sally always gets the top scores on these tests." Just then, Sally stormed from the classroom. Two splotches of red rode high on her cheeks, and one could almost see the smoke pouring from her ears. He eyes were narrowed down, her teeth were grinding, and she was quietly muttering to herself. Sonic gulped. This was one time when he was glad she wasn't after him. If she decided Torth was going to pay, he would. In spades. Tails strode of to Sonic looking is Sally's direction. "What's got her so steamed up, another 96 on a quiz?" Sonic turned to face the two tailed fox. "No, someone got 1st place on a quiz, and it wasn't her." Tail's eyes grew huge. He glanced at the enraged princess again. "Who was it? Someone who was doing good as well?" Sonic shook his head. "No it was a new guy who just came in today. There he is." Sonic pointed a white gloved finger in the direction of the crossbreed, who was walking down the corridor away from them. Tails peered after the strange figure. "What species is he? I've never seen anyone like him!" Sonic shrugged. "Dunno. I figure he's some sort of cross breed, or something." Tails nodded slowly, still staring where Torth had disappeared around a corner. The fox shook his head to bring himself out of his daze. "So, what do you have next?" Sonic thought for a moment. "Gym" Tails nodded. "I have science. We're doing a physics unit, so I can't wait!" Sonic grinned. The young fox's enthusiasm was catchy. He rubbed Tails on the head. "Well, I gotta go. Gym will start soon, and you know how the coach is when someone's late!" Tails grimaced and nodded at the same time. Sonic laughed, and then sped off.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, heres chapter 2. It doesn't really have any effect on the story line, but wanted some non-new character interaction...

Any reviews are appreciated, and I take all advice seriously. I hope people enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Chapter 2

Relation-wreck

Knuckles came out of math class, his head spinning. All the numbers were just too much. I guess polynomials are just too much for me, he thought. Then, he stopped moving. He started counting under his breath. "One. Two. Three…" Right on cue, Sonic arrived in a blur of motion. The hedgehog was grinning roguishly as usual, a feature that seemed completely natural on his face. He showed no signs of fatigue, even after going through one of the gym periods. Everyone else would take a couple minutes to catch up, being out of breath as they were. "Well, how was it?" The red echidna inquired. Sonic just grinned wider. "Nice and easy… Running and stuff." Great, thought Knuckles. Now he'll be hyper for the rest of the day.

Just as Knuckles opened his mouth to say something, a furious Sally stormed around that corner. She was muttering to herself. All Knuckles could make out was the words 'jerk', 'quiz', and 'memory'. These were followed by several words Knuckle had never thought he'd hear the princess utter. Sonic, however, didn't read her mood well and casually asked her how her day was going. Next thing Knuckles knew, Sonic had been slammed against the wall and Sally was yelling at him. "That jerk! I ask him how he does it, and he says it's because he remembered from the text! No one remembers from the text! I always get the highest scores! Me! Damn it!" Sally paused for breath. Her face quivered with rage. Sonic had gone completely white. Knuckles took advantage of the lapse to ask a question. "Did you ask Torth why he did better than you?" Sally turned to look at him, her eyes flaming. "Yes. I. Did." Her voice seemed to be on fire. Knuckle blanched. "Uh, Sonic, we have study hall this period, right?" Sonic just nodded franticly. "Ok. Uh, we better go. See you later, Sal!" Knuckle yelled the last sentence over his shoulder as he barreled down the corridor alongside Sonic, leaving the Acorn Princess standing in the hallway, fuming.

Knuckles settled down in his chair. He pulled his textbooks out of his backpack and set them up carefully. As he was doing that, he started thinking about Sally. He hated it when she got so angry, especially when it was directed at him. When ever she got like that, he felt like he should help calm her down, soothe her anger and frustration. Sighing, he propped his head up in his heads. Sally craved good marks. She'd do almost anything to be at the top of the class. Knuckles himself was in the middle section. He wasn't failing, but he wouldn't exactly be an honors student. He and his father, Locke, had fought it out many times before. However, as of late, his father had lain off, leaving Knuckles to himself. Knuckles appreciated this, however, it made him feel guilty, and now he was trying harder than ever to get his marks up.

As Knuckles drifted in thought, he found his thoughts kept turning to Sally. He kept trying to tell himself, that he was just a friend, not even that high, maybe. However, he couldn't help it. Unacknowledged fantasies drifted through his head, ones where he had somehow saved her, or where she liked him, or… Knuckles shook his head. No. He didn't want those. He was happy here, where he was! Grabbing his pen, be began furiously writing notes, his hand flying. Sometimes the pen nearly broke through the paper. After what seemed like forever, Knuckles stopped. His hands were sweaty inside his gloves, yet they felt cold. Knuckles felt his pulse racing faster than ever. He gulped. Looking at the paper, he felt chills. They started out as notes, and then changed. In the last half of the page, he had written Sally's name out as much as possible. He stared at the paper for another few seconds, then crumpled it viciously, and hurled it into the waste basket. Looking around, he saw that no one was close to him. Good. He was afraid someone had noticed. That was scary, the red echidna thought. I need help. Badly. If this happens on a test, I'm screwed!

After study hall, Knuckles felt that cold feeling in his hands. Who could he talk to? No one would understand! They would just laugh, or even worse, tell the object of his affections. Then it hit him. Espio! He could keep a secret! Knuckles felt the cold sensation fade. He headed down the corridor towards where the purple chameleon usually hung out. In a few second, Knuckles had spotted Espio. He was talking to Shadow as usual. The red echidna hung back, waiting for a break in the conversation. He stepped in at the right point. Espio turned to look at him. The long yellow horn in the middle of the chameleon's face glinted in the light. "Yes?" Knuckles motioned for him to come closer. "I need someone to talk to. I need another opinion on matters from someone who won't tell anyone else." Espio nodded. He turned to Shadow and twisted his head away. Shadow nodded and strode off. Espio turned back to Knuckles. "What is it you need to talk about?" Knuckles sighed, and in a quiet voice, spilled his feelings about Sally to the waiting ears of the chameleon.

Once he had finished, Knuckles drew a deep breath. His head was spinning painfully, and he felt dizzy. Espio seemed to be thinking, as his eyes were closed. Knuckles waited anxiously. Espio's viewpoint was often correct, as he took the time to think things out carefully. After what seemed like hours, the chameleon opened his eyes. He paused momentarily, and then spoke. "You've got a good case of serious infatuation, Knuckles. If what you've told me is true, then you need psychiatric help. It sounds extremely deep run. It could end up affecting your whole year." The purple chameleon paused to let this sink into the red echidna's astonished face. "I have a few solutions that you might try. One, you seek out psychiatric help. That might cure it. Two, you simply tell Sally how you feel. However, that might not be a good idea…" Espio watched Knuckle's face turn paper white at the mention of telling Sally his feelings. "The third option is to ask someone else close to her about what she thinks of you. Maybe that would cure you, by letting you know if she likes you as well." Knuckles debated these options. The first was possible, as a last resort maybe, but possible. He could just ask Vector. He was taking a course in that in college. The second option was right out! She'd rip him to pieces! However, the third option was the most likely to work. "Thanks Espio. That really helped. I'll try the last one. It'll help the most, I think." The chameleon waved him off and returned to his meditating stance.

Knuckles walked down the corridor. He still had a few minutes till his next class. He debated on who to ask. Sonic wouldn't be able to. He'd either forget to ask or would spill it to someone else. Tails wouldn't know which questions to ask, emotions and relationships not being his forte. He was tempted to ask Shadow, but decided against it. Shadow would know what to do and ask, but Sally didn't really know him well. Omega was a possibility, but was rejected for the same reason as Shadow. For a second he thought about asking Rouge, but decided against it. Rouge was a famous flirt, and would revel in the chance of some new gossip. If anything, she'd hold that question over his head for weeks. Knuckles thought. Who else did Sally ever talk to? Silver, maybe… No. Silver was shyer than me, Knuckles thought. For a long time he had had a crush on Amy, but the silver colored hedgehog had let it go because he was too shy to ask her anything. Then he got an idea! Blaze! She hung around with Sally a lot out of school!

The red echidna peered around the corner. He only had about two minutes left until he had to be in class, so he had to hurry. However, he couldn't seem to find the purple cat. Suddenly, Knuckles remembered that Blaze was always early for her classes. Hurrying, he turned around and made for his class. He made it in just before the late bell rang, earning him a glare from his teacher. He scurried to his desk, and quickly pretended to pay attention. As the teacher got into her speech, Knuckles quickly wrote a note and passed it to Silver, who was behind him. The silver colored hedgehog nodded quickly and placed it his pocket. Knuckles let out a sigh of relief. Silver was a good friend of Blaze, and would pass the note on next chance he got. Knuckles then turned his attention back to the teacher, who was still lecturing, and prepared to take another set of notes.

The bell hadn't even finished ringing before the classroom was empty. As it was the last class of the day, everyone was anxious to get out of the school. Knuckles waited outside of the school doors, doing his best to look inconspicuous. Locke wouldn't expect him home for another few hours, so Knuckles was in the clear. His father had a set schedule that he followed religiously. Knuckles was to be on time for everything. Once he had been five minutes late and had been grounded for 6 months. He had since learned to always be on time, no matter what. As Knuckles was thinking, he was jerked out of his thoughts by someone approaching him and calling to him. He opened his eyes to see Blaze standing there. "You had Silver give me a message?" She asked. Knuckles nodded. "Did you get it?" Blaze nodded. She handed Knuckles a sheet of paper and walked away. That was the great thing about Blaze, Knuckles thought. She believed in complete confidentiality. She wouldn't tell Sally her real reasons for talking to her, and would never tell anyone. Knuckles placed the paper in his pocket and walked off towards an alley, where he could read in privacy.

Knuckles unfolded the paper. He was in a space where the steam vents wouldn't get the paper wet. He read carefully. "Knuckles. I got your message. I managed to ask Sally exactly what she thinks about you. Sally actually likes you. Of, course, this took me about 5 minutes of prodding to get her to admit it, but I think she needed to. She thinks your kind of cute, and likes your whole attitude. In fact, she's kind of curious about why you haven't asked her out yet. She knows you like her, but she's starting to have doubts about it. If you want to go out with her, do it soon. Blaze." Knuckles re-read the writing. He re-re-read it. Then he read it again for good measure. Sally…. Actually liked him!? That just wasn't possible! Sally couldn't! She was so far out of his league!!

Knuckles stumbled home with only a few seconds to spare on his curfew. He was silent throughout dinner. His father never said anything, although, even a blind man could see that Knuckles wasn't quite right. The red echidna's mind was reeling. He couldn't stop thinking about that letter. It had to be a fake! There was no way that it could not be a fake! Knuckles continued to brood over his food. Finally, after what felt like ages, Locke pushed his chair back from the table. He looked at his son with a logical gaze. Knuckles felt his father staring at him, and looked up, snapping out of his trance for the first time. "Alright." Locke said. "You've been acting weird ever since you got home. I want to know why. Don't try to give excuses or evade the question." Knuckles gulped. Slowly, he spilled the whole story to his father. He knew it wouldn't do any good to try to hide it. His father worked for the police and was often the one to break criminals and get them to confess. He had a perfect record and only had to walk in the room now for some criminals to give up. After Knuckles finished, he pulled in a long trembling breath. His father was sitting, hands clasped under his chin. There was a long moment of silence which hung in the air like a thick curtain. Locke finally spoke. "Well, it is good to see you are showing interest in the other gender. I would prefer it if it was an echidna girl, but for now this is fine. You have my permission to continue pursuing this relationship." Locke then left the table. No more needed to be said.


	3. Chapter 3

Alright. Here's chapter three. Sorry its so short, but I was busy when I was writing it. Chapter 4 will be MUCH longer, I promise (with more than one POV too!). But anyways, this chapter was to give a peek into Torth's life. Not exactly prime, hmm? Also introduces Rith. Kudos as to who can name the bat... .\\

Chapter 3

Difference distance

He just didn't get all of this. It made no sense. The work was easy. With his photographic memory he could recall anything he had heard or read. However, it was the people that bothered him. They didn't make sense! Most weren't even trying to work hard and spent their time passing notes and talking. Only one or two actually did well, and they had horrible tempers. That one chipmunk that he had done better than had looked like a volcano! Plus, no one was willing to talk to him. He had stopped that tray in the cafeteria, but that seemed to only have distanced him from the others. He'd never been around people before, so he didn't know what to do. He felt the loneliness wash up again, and he smashed it back down, pulling his cool façade over himself again.

Torth walked down the street. The cool breeze wafted through his long hair, which stuck straight up. He couldn't tame it, so he had just decided to leave it alone. His wings were tucked as close to his body as he could manage, hiding their true size. He kept his tail pressed to his back, keeping it ridged. He saw the occasional face from the school, but not many. After about 3 hours, he headed to his sleeping place, a homeless shelter in the middle of the down town. They knew him, and let him in. He pulled out his homework, finishing it quickly. Once he was done, he lay back on the lumpy mattress, allowing himself to drift. His thoughts wandered. He'd stopped that tray faster than ever. He brought his hand up in front of his face. He had also launched the tray back. Torth concentrated. Slowly, a purple glow encased his hand, forming a shield of sorts. Torth poured more effort into it. When he looked again, this time it was as if his hand were on fire with bright purple flames. However, the flame appeared about a centimeter from the surface of his hand. He flexed his fingers, watching as the fiery coating moved with them. Slowly, he removed energy from his hand, and the flames died down to nothing. Torth hadn't always been able to do this. He had discovered his ability a few months ago, and had been developing it since.

Torth closed his eyes again. He was drifting off to sleep when another person entered his room. He knew who it was without looking. "Hey, Rith." Torth opened his eyes as he sat up. The black creature moved silently across the floor, and sat down in front of him. "How was school?" The black creature asked softly. Rith didn't really have a species. It was assumed by others that he was a very weird crossbreed of some kind. In reality, there had been a chaos intervention at his birth, and he had ended up… twisted. He was shorter than Torth, and only 14. He was jet back, with blue fire like patches at his wrists, calves, and chest. He had black spikes on his head with a large number of blue highlights. He also had a long thin tail with a sharp black spine about 3 inches long on the end. "School was fine." Torth replied. He had been friends with Rith for several years, since they had met on the street.

After a long discussion, Rith stood up. "It's almost time for supper." Torth stood up as well. "I know." The both of them walked out of the room and headed out of the building. Heading out onto the street, they looked around carefully. "What do you want today?" Torth asked. "I was thinking pasta, but hamburgers would be fine as well." The black creature replied. Torth nodded. "Pasta it is." He walked off towards one of the seedy pasta restaurants. Ducking around the back, he headed for the dumpster. Rith followed behind him, keeping watchful eyes out for pedestrians. Torth opened the lid. He closed it after a quick visual inspection. "No luck. You ready?" Rith nodded. Torth clambered up to the one window in the kitchen. Peering in, he spotted a large pot of tortellini and a cauldron of sauce. He looked from side to side. No one. "All clear" he whispered down to Rith. Rith nodded. He vanished in a flash of red light. Torth watched him materialize in the kitchen. Quickly, the creature grabbed the pot and cauldron and vanished. Just in time too. A cook walked back into the kitchen. He took one look around and yelled out about the thieves. He dashed to the back door. He peered out, but couldn't see anyone. He closed the door behind him as he reentered the building. Torth clambered down from the space over the door, and lowered Rith to the ground. He didn't know how he could do it, but the ability to cling to any surface helped a lot. He grabbed a few marginally cracked plates from the dumpster and the two left.

After a filling meal under one of the city's bridges, they used the plates for target practice, Rith throwing them over the water, and Torth hurling purple fire at them. He managed to break 4 of the five plates. Rith took the pots back, and the two walked back to their room at the homeless shelter. However, on the way they heard a scuffle. Torth's ears perked up at the sound, listening for the location. It was only a block out of their way. He motioned for Rith to follow. He crept along, the two of them like shadows. He nodded at Rith; the creature disappeared, reappearing on the roof of the alley where the fight was taking place. He reappeared a few minutes later. "One female, 3 males. Appears to be a random mugging. Your call." Torth nodded once. He headed for the alley. He had thought that this would be harder. Only three guys didn't have a chance against him.

Torth observed the situation first. The guys were more focused on obtaining money than hurting the girl, which was good. She was fighting back, but it wasn't going to be enough by a long shot. Torth stepped forward. He activated his energy fire. It encased his hands, glowing a brilliant purple which cast stark shadows upon the fight. The combatants stopped and stared. Torth reached out, stepping closer as fast as he could. To the untrained eye, it looked as if he had just teleported. He grabbed the largest male by the back of his neck. He ripped him off the girl and threw him back. The combatant, a cougar, hit the wall with all the grace of a flying brick. So much for always landing on his feet, Torth thought as the cougar slid to the floor, unconscious. He could have easily thrown him through the wall, but he didn't feel the need to kill him. One of the other combatants, a large salamander, snapped out of his trance and lunged, throwing a punch at Torth's head. Torth simply grabbed the hand. The lizard stopped dead in midair. Torth then stepped forwards and punched, dragging the salamander into the force. He let go at the right moment, sending the lizard flying backwards. He hit a dumpster and didn't get up. The last combatant, a eagle, took one look at the glowing Torth and ran for his life. Torth casually picked up a rock and hurled it, encasing it in his energy. The glowing rock struck the eagle's arm, shattering it. It let out a squawk of pain, but kept running. The whole incident had taken about a half minute.

Torth pulled the energy back in, ceasing the purple glow. He looked around. All was quiet. Finally, he looked down at the girl. She was a bat, young, about 16 to 17. He had a memory of seeing her at the school briefly. She was pale and was breathing hard, but that was to be expected. Torth knelt down. "Are you alright?" She stared at him. "Y…Ye…Yes…." She finally managed to stammer. Torth helped her to her feet. "Don't worry. I've seen those guys before. That other one won't be back, and these two aren't going anywhere soon." The bat was shaking. Torth peeled off his jacket and gave it to her. She accepted it without a word. He guided her out of the alley. Rith appeared at his side. "Everything go okay?" The girl jumped, but settled down. Torth nodded. To the bat, he asked. "Where do you live? We can get you back there." The girl pointed. Torth nodded at Rith. The black creature grabbed the both of them and they disappeared, reappearing in an alley about seven blocks in the direction indicated. "Is it further on?" The bat nodded. So they traveled another seven blocks. Still, it was indicated that the house was still further on. Finally, another 3 jumps later, the Bat nodded. Torth and Rith let go, and she walked away. Torth leapt up while Rith teleported to the roof. Watching, they saw her enter a house unharmed. After the door closed, Rith grabbed Torth and they vanished.

Reappearing in a red flash in the alley outside the shelter, Rith let go of Torth's shoulder. Walking inside, they headed up the 3 flights of stairs to their room. Once there, Torth flung himself on the bed. Rith lay down on the cot at the opposite room. Sighing, Torth picked up his textbook and leafed through it again. However, he already knew everything the book had to offer. He picked up a different text, but he had memorized that one as well. Checking every page of every book, he found quickly that he had already read them all. Sometimes having a perfect memory with photographic qualities isn't the best thing to have, Torth thought. Sighing again, he debated what he should do. Playing games with Rith was out. They knew each other so well that they could predict what moves the other would make several turns ahead. Even in games of chance it was predictable! Looking at the clock, Torth saw that it was after 9. "Well, I guess its time to sleep." Rith nodded. Torth flicked out the light. Lying down, he pulled the thin wool sheet over himself. He closed his eyes and drifted off, falling asleep within only a few seconds.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Precious metals

Silver's POV

CRASH! Silver flinched at the loud noise. He hated the gym. He had managed to wiggle his way out of it as a class, but as one of the reporters for the school paper, he did have to come back here every now and then. Looking over at the large weight that had tumbled to the floor, he sighed. He quickened his pace. The sooner he got out of here, the better, Silver thought. He spotted the person he was looking for. A large hedgehog was lifting weights. He was bench pressing a huge bar at a steady pace. Walking up, Silver suppressed a shudder. The hedgehog was bright red, and covered with muscle. He had medium length spikes, the ends of which were covered in chrome points. He wasn't having any trouble bench pressing the bar. Silver glanced at the total weight and saw that it was more than twice his own. He stood quietly to the side, waiting for the hedgehog to finish. After a few minutes, the weightlifter settled the bar back in its hooks. Standing up, he toweled of the sweat that dripped from his head. He seemed to finally see Silver standing there, and dropped the towel over the bench.

"You waiting for your turn?" The hedgehog asked. Silver shook his head.

"No. I'm from the paper. I need to interview you for the gym section."

The other hedgehog nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I've seen you before… Silver, right?"

Silver nodded. "That's me. You are?" The hedgehog laughed.

"They sent you to interview me and didn't even tell you my name. Dude, that is weird. I'm Melton."

He stuck out his hand. Silver shook it. He wore no gloves, and his fur was bright red. He had orange highlights in a weird pulse-like patter covering his arms. He was wearing a tank top which was stretched almost to the breaking point by his intimidating and well muscled chest. Silver nodded towards the door.

"Shall we go somewhere, say, a bit quieter?" A loud crash punctuated his sentence. Silver flinched at the noise, which caused Melton to laugh. Straightening up, Melton towered over Silver. However, that wasn't saying much. Most people his age were taller than him. He walked with Melton towards the door, leaving the noise chaos, and bad memories behind.

"So, how long have you been at the gym?" Silver stood waiting for a reply, pencil and notepad poised.

"Well, since I started here. I've always been big on working out, so I just choose what I thought I'd enjoy." Silver scribbled furiously in his own shorthand. Normal people would find it indecipherable, but both him and Blaze could read and write it. It was a sort of secret code. As he jotted down the last sentence, Silver asked another question.

"A lot of people view you as an inspiration, you know. What are your feelings on that?" Melton paused in thought.

"Well, it makes me feel sorta respected, you know. However, I don't think I'm a prime role model for younger kids. I mean, I've got lower grades than normal cause I'm working out so much. I guess if I had to say something to people, I'd say that working out is important, but you should balance it with your academics." Silver nodded. He finished writing a second later.

"So, in other words, you're a do as I say, not as I do sorta guy?" Melton nodded, his chrome spikes gleaming in the hallway lights.

"That's correct. I used to focus on school, but I found my marks never increased, no matter what I did. Even know, with all my time spent here, my marks are still the same. Its kinda weird, but I've learn to accept it as it is and to just keep on going." Silver nodded thoughtfully as he wrote the last few words down. He brushed some loose quills off of his forehead and continued.

"Alright, here's an easy one. How much can you bench press?" Melton grinned widely.

"About 580 pounds, but it'll be over 600 before the month is out." Silver bent to pick up his pencil, which he had dropped. The lead hadn't broken so he was lucky. With a shaking hand he wrote down Melton's reply.

"580 pounds?" He asked, eyes opened wide. The red hedgehog grinned again and nodded.

"How?" Silver asked, composing himself quickly. "How do you do it?" Melton explained.

"Well, you know how people have abilities, right? Sort of like that Sonic guy can run real fast, and that girl Blaze can make fire? Well, mine is that I'm really strong. Without any adrenaline, I can press 580 pounds. With adrenaline in my system I could probably press a car… Never tried though." Silver was staring incredulously.

"A-a-a-a-a ca-a-a-a-r?" Melton chuckled at the expression Silver made.

"Yeah. I've gotten pumped a couple times and my strength increases a lot." Silver stammered for a second, and then got a hold of himself. As he wrote down Melton's statement, the hedgehog spoke again.

"However, I know you could do that too, you being a psychokinetic, and all." Silver stiffened. Not many people knew that he could move things.

"Uh, well, yeah." He whispered to the red hedgehog. "However, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about it. Not many people would like that. Only a few people know, and I'd like it to stay that way." Melton nodded.

"Alright, fair enough. I understand why." He looked towards the clock. The hands read 1:47. Silver glanced as well. He stiffened; he was supposed to be in class in a few minutes. Snapping his notebook closed, he turned back to the red hedgehog.

"Uh, I got to go. If this isn't enough, I'll find you later." Melton called after the metallic hedgehog as he raced down the corridor.

"That's fine. You know where to find me!" Melton had a class in a few minutes, but he wasn't concerned. He was the best guy in the wrestling team, and they wouldn't fail him. He would attend classes, but he wanted to finish his workout. Turning back to the gym, he twisted one of his chrome points back in place. Why could these things never stay on right?

Blaze's POV

"Blaaaazzzzzzzeeeeee!!" The girls jeered.

"Aren't you gonna light us on fire, Blaaaazzzzzzzeeeeeee?" Blaze shook her head. She hated those girls. It was hard enough having her abilities, but these girls tempted her. One gesture and poof! No more girls. However, that would get her suspended. Ignoring the girls, she strode past. Silver was the only reason she stayed here at all. She might be able to get back to her home dimension, but Silver couldn't. He was stuck here. Blaze would have left him, but he needed someone he could trust, or he'd get confused. He wasn't stupid, he was just naïve. He didn't know much about people, and didn't interact well. That was one reason she stayed. The other was that Silver was a good friend, and kind of cute. For a long time, he had had a raging crush on Amy Rose, of all people, but that had worn off. She had recently thought about trying to go out with him, but decided against it. He needed a friend, not a girlfriend. Plus, it was better for him to choose someone on his own. He normal did as she told him, so if she did ask him out; it would be a snap decision, with no thought behind it. She sighed as she reached her locker. At least school was over. She had had a physics test, and had been really nervous. At least there wasn't much homework tonight. As she shoved books into her locker, she noticed someone moving to the locker next to her. She didn't pay much attention at first, but as she turned around she got a good look. He had to be the new guy that Sonic had been talking about. Tall, but slouched, brown fur, wings, fox tail, long ears pointed straight up, and a riff of bright yellow hair like fire. He looked different from everyone else. His fashion choices were dark, to say the least; black hoodie, black pants, brown shoes with a yellow stripe, brown gloves, the ends of which disappeared into his sleeves. Yup, it had to be him. He didn't even say hello though. He just took a few textbooks from his locker and vanished. No one really seemed to see him, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye. Blaze had to reassure herself that he hadn't been a mirage! Weird, she thought. Why did he say anything? I mean, our lockers are right beside each other. Blaze dropped the thought as she closed her locker. She was meeting Silver outside, as usual. Maybe he'd decide to ask her out! That would be a surprising turn of events indeed. Well, she could hope…

Stepping outside into the sun, Blaze paused for a minute. I always felt too good to get out of that cramped building a feel the sunlight on her face. After her moment, she walked down the steps. Looking around, she spotted Silver standing under one of the trees one the lawn. She smiled. Silver had always had sensitive skin, and got sunburn faster than everyone else she knew. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood up, long pants, and his usual boots. However, he looked almost comical. His front head spikes stuck straight up out of the hood, making it look like a giant fan. He'd been teased for a long time about it, but he hadn't given in, so they people had stopped. Walking over to him, Blaze spotted the glowing turquoise rings on his gloves. They helped channel his physic ability better. Silver noticed her after a moment. His grin was like an innocent ray of light. He motioned her over. She strode along, not hurrying. Once she was close enough to talk, Silver asked her how her day had gone.

"Good. I had a test, but I know I passed." Silver nodded.

"That's good. I had to do an interview for the paper. It was in the gym with some wrestling guy named Melton." Blaze winced. Silver hated the gym. Ever since his first time there he had hated it. His worst experience had been when he had to wrestle, and had been in the hospital for 3 days with a broken leg. He'd had to wear a cast for ages and had only gotten out of it last month. It had been horribly awkward for him.

"Wow, they made you go to the gym. That's horrible!" Silver shook his head.

"Actually, the guy I had to interview was really nice. He seemed to know a lot about me too." Silver motioned in the air. He spoke his next words in a lower voice.

"He knows what I can do." Blaze felt the blood drain from her face.

"How does he know? If he's been spying on you…" Silver shook his head again.

"No, I don't think so. He doesn't seem like he's dangerous. Well, besides his strength. He just seemed to know." Silver shrugged.

"I don't know how he does, but he said he'd keep it a secret. That's all that matters about it." Blaze nodded.

"Your right. I hope that he keeps that promise…" Silver nodded.

"He will. I'm sure of it." Blaze looked at her watch. Suddenly, she remembered she had left her notes on her desk in history. She explained this to Silver and dashed off.

Arriving in the room, she snatched up her notes. Good. No one had taken them. She turned around and left the room. Maybe she'd finally ask Silver if he wanted to go out with her… She was walking down the hallway when the fist hit her. She had been so distracted that she never even saw it coming. It slammed into her stomach, doubling her over. She fell to the ground, struggling to breathe. Looking up, she saw three boys. They were all known bullies, and worse, boyfriends of the girls who teased her. They had obviously been talked into this, but that didn't change anything. The boys were laughing. Another fist slammed into the side of her head. Her vision went fuzzy. She couldn't even make out their species anymore. She tried focusing on her power, but before she could they punched her again. She knew what would happen. They beat her senseless and leave her in the halls as a warning to others. That's if she was lucky. There were rumor floating around that this group had killed a boy two years ago for insulting them. She didn't want to follow suit. Her fuzzy vision managed to see another form come up behind them. Great, she thought, another. However, then, the fourth form punched one of the three boys. The boy flew over her into wall. She looked at where he had hit, and there was a large impact crater. Her vision was returning, and she looked at her defender. He was large and red. He was probably a hedgehog, but she wasn't willing to bet on anything right now. His head looked weird though. He had some sort of bright metal there. She watched as the boys charged him. He'd had the element of surprise before, but now he was in real trouble. One would land a hit. Then, both of them drew knives. If one got through, they'd kill him! The figure seemed to know this, and braced himself. But they never hit.

Looking again, Blaze could see that they were surrounding by a glowing green field. They couldn't move. Her vision was almost normal now, and she knew what that glow meant. Turning around, she saw Silver. He was glowing as well. Bright green and blue flames licked off his fur, making it look like he was on fire. However, it was his face that was scariest. It was a mask of absolute fury. He gestured violently, causing the two boys to slam into the wall. He ripped the knives from their hands with an after thought. Before she could react, the knives plunged into the left ear of each one, pinning them to the wall. Both howled with pain. Silver wrenched them out of the wall, leaving substantial chunks of their ears behind. He slammed them into wall after wall smashing them until blood flew in bright red arcs across the walls and floor.

"Where's your strength now!!" Silver yelled. He blew them straight through a wall, into a classroom. There, he let them go, and began throwing chairs and desks at them. He was still shouting, but Blaze couldn't make out any words. After a few second, the large red figure recovered himself and grabbed Silver, pinning his arms behind his back. That managed to stop the chaos. Chair and desk pieces rained down. The whole area looked like it had been blasted by the Egg fleet. A strange fog made out of chair and desk pieces mixed with chunks of plaster, which floated around as a fine dust. Silver raged for a minute longer, fighting for all he was worth, but eventually he calmed down. After it seemed Silver was sane again, the red hedgehog let him go. Silver immediately rushed over to Blaze, who was still on the ground.

"Are you alright!?" He almost yelled. Blazed made a small smile. It hurt, but Silver seemed to need to see it.

"I'm fine." She managed a hoarse whisper. Silver shook his head. "No. No your not!" He picked her up, cradling her in his arms.

"I'll get you to the hospital. They'll know what to do." He dashed off, leaving the red hedgehog behind. The figure shrugged, and turned back down the hallway.

Silver's POV

"Will she be alright?" Silver asked the doctor. The tall squirrel looked over his clipboard again. He was dressed in the typical bright white lab coat, and had half – moon glasses, which he was peering through with bright green eyes.

"She'll be fine. She has some nasty bruises, but that's all. She was lucky she didn't have a broken jaw, though." Silver relaxed. Blaze was okay. He could recall exactly what he had seen, every second of it. It was like the images had been branded onto his eyeballs. However, he couldn't remember what happened next. He had seen Melton fighting them, but after that it was a blur of confused images. Nothing made sense.

"Can I see her?" Silver asked tentatively. He could understand if he couldn't. Maybe she was asleep, or unconscious, or sedated. Any way, it would be reasonable.

"Sure. Just don't make her stressed or anything. It wouldn't be good. She has a slight concussion, so don't make her move too much." The doctor said. Silver almost leapt with joy. Hurrying to the room, he opened the door quietly. Blaze was lying in the hospital bed, reading some book. Silver knocked on the side of the open door.

"Knock, knock!" He said. Blaze looked up. A smile split her face as she beamed. Silver grinned in return.

"How you doing?" He inquired. Blaze shrugged.

"Fine, I guess. I'm still a little sore, but the doctor said I'd be fine." Silver nodded.

"That's what he told me. I'm glad you're okay after all that." Blaze shrugged again.

"For once having that many magic rings helped me along." Silver started. He started franticly digging through his backpack, looking for something. Finally, he pulled out a large container.

"Right! Here, I thought these would help you recover." Silver tossed her a large container of the gold rings. Blaze grabbed them, and Silver watched as they dissolved into her. He saw the last of her bruises vanish and her energy level peak. That was the marvel of rings. They increased your stamina and sped up your healing rate. Blaze smiled at Silver. Silver felt a slight rush of blood in his face. Weird. He'd never felt anything like that around Blaze before. She was his friend, and had been for many years. Unsure of what to saw, Silver just stood there shuffling his feet. He gaze roamed all over the room. What was it he was feeling? It was more than friendship… he was certain of that. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Silver finally spoke up. His voice almost cracked but he held it steady.

"Uh, Blaze? I was, uh, wondering if, when you're better, of course, if, uh, you'd, you know, like to, kinda, go out together?" Silver immediately felt his face blush. He thought about turning around and going, when Blaze motioned him forwards. Once he was within a few feet, she slapped him. Silver stared, uncomprehending. Why had she done that? Maybe she didn't like him at all!

"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO ASK!?" She roared. "Of course I'll go out with you! I've been hinting about that for a week and a half!" Silver just stood there staring. It took about a full minute for the connection to be made in his mind and the words to sink in.

"You… were waiting for ME to ask YOU?" Silver didn't get it. "Why?" Blaze started laughing softly.

"Silver, if I'd asked you, you would have said yes even if you didn't want to, right?" Silver nodded slowly. Slowly, the reason for Blaze's waiting came into view.

"Oh! Because I would have said yes immediately, it wouldn't have been my choice, and you wanted me to make the decision myself!" Blazed smiled. Tears started leaking down her face. Silver stepped forwards and held her. He started crying tears of joy as well. The sounds of their sobbing attracted a nurse, who popped her head around the door. Seeing the two locked in an embrace, she quickly disappeared. She motioned to the doctor that they were not to be disturbed for a while.

Melton's POV

A few days after the fight, Melton was pumping iron in the gym, like usual. The counter was set at 610. He strained under the load, the veins on his arms standing out in stark contrast to his smooth fur. He sweated profusely, but continued. A low groan escaped him as he reached the 50th rep. He lifted the bars on last time, and then dropped it back into its hooks. The hooks creaked slightly under the weight. Melton stood up, panting. He grabbed the towel draped over the table nearby. However, it was so sweat soaked from his last exercise that it only laid more sweat on him as he wiped it across his face. Smelling the pungent towel, he tossed it away, grabbing another fresh one. After a few moment of relaxation, Melton got ready to do another 50 reps. He would do them until he couldn't anymore, and then rest for an hour. Maybe attend a class, or two. His attendance had dropped recently, but he wasn't going to fail. The teams need him too badly. He grabbed a handful of chalk dust from the tray, spreading the white powder on his hands so his grip would improve. He was about to lay down on the bench to start when he heard footsteps coming down the gym. Sighing, he pulled himself back up, and looked there. Silver, the newspaper's reporter, was walking towards him. Melton sighed, and stood up.

"Yes? Need something?" Silver shook his head.

"What, another interview? More info for the last one? What?" Silver just shook his head.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping Blaze. Those guys might have really hurt her." Melton shrugged.

"No big deal. I'd do that for anyone being beat up. Thanks for coming in when you did. Those knives wouldn't have made a pretty sight…" Silver let out a small chuckle.

"Well, yeah. I know I got sort of angry. I didn't hurt you, did I?" Melton shrugged.

"I've taken worse. You didn't get a chance to use that Physcokinesis on me, so I'm still fine." Silver sighed in relief.

"That's good. I was afraid I'd really gotten you." Melton laughed.

"Nah, I'm fine. How's the girl?" Silver looked back at him.

"Her name is Blaze, and she's fine. She was a bit bruised, but she's fine. It could have been a lot worse." Silver shook his head. "I wish I could have gotten there sooner."

"Hey, if she's fine, that all you can ask for, right?" Melton tried to cheer up the metallic hedgehog. He didn't like seeing Silver being melancholy, it just looked bad. Silver shrugged.

"I guess. Anyways, I just wanted to thank you. I'd better get going; I have an article to write." Silver dashed off.

"See you later!" Melton hollered after him. Melton grinned ruefully. That guy was intriguing, to say the least. Well, I'd better continue, thought Melton. Sitting back on the bench he lay down. He applied another layer of the white chalk to his hands. Lying back, he gripped the steel bar. Lifting it up, he began his 50 reps once more.


	5. Chapter 5

Okay, chapter 5. Sorry it took so long, school is trying to kill me... But anyways, heres the chapter as promised, all 5000+ words of it. My fingers are still sore from all that writing!

Well, read away. Please, reviews are wonderful, I appreciate any and all feedback about this, it really helps me write it! Any suggestions, comments, criticisms, or advice on the story are more than welcome!

Chapter 5

Surprise, surprise

"Alright!" Sonic ripped the poster down from the message board. "The school dance for this semester is next week! I'm so pumped for it!" Knuckles winced.

"Yeah, and last time you got thrown out because you got WAY too hyper…" Sonic brushed him off.

"Not this year! Man, its gonna be great!" Sonic was doing a victory dance, when Knuckles grabbed the poster.

"Yeah, but who are you gonna take?" Sonic froze in mid-step.

"Take?"

"Yeah." Knuckles pointed out the line. "It's a partner affair. You gotta take someone out to the dance and dance with them for at least three dances." Sonic turned white. Cocking an ear, Knuckles heard the sound of someone running full tilt. He heard the high pitched scream that came a second later.

"TAKE COVER!!" Sonic yelled. He dived behind a garbage can. Knuckles ducked into a door alcove. If there was one force on Mobius that neither him nor Sonic wanted to face, it was this one. 3'4", bright pink fur, red dress, obscenely huge hammer… Yup, Amy Rose was a force to be reckoned with, especially when she was after what she was. Something blue, 3'6", fast, and currently scared out of its wits… Peeking around the corner, Knuckles caught a glimpse of the bright pink hedgehog as she barreled down the corridor. Any who stood in her way were bowled out of the way. She raced past them, shouting at the top of her lungs.

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKUUUUUUUUUUUU!!" After a few seconds had past, both Sonic and Knuckles crawled from their hiding places.

"Phew!" Sonic exclaimed. "That was close!"

"Sure was!" Agreed Knuckles. He didn't have the heart to tell Sonic about the shape creeping up behind him.

"Gotcha!" Amy cried as she grabbed Sonic from behind.

"Whoa! Help! Knux! Help me!" Knuckles shook his head.

"Sorry, can't. She's not going to let go." Amy proceeded to drag Sonic down the corridor blathering about how happy she was that they were going to the dance together. Knuckles laughed at the sight of Sonic being bodily dragged away. However, give him five minutes and he'd get away. Not before Amy forced him to promise to take her, however… Now, thought Knuckles. I need to figure out who I'm taking. Well, the answer was obvious; this was the prefect time to ask Sally. But that would need a plan. He couldn't just ask her… She'd kill him! Knuckles pondered. The invitation had to be by proxy, of course, but by someone she knew, but then they'd tell her anything she wanted about him. That meant there had to be a double proxy, and by someone he could trust… Well, the only people he could trust were Sonic, Tails, Espio, and Omega. Well, Sonic was out, he thought. That hedgehog would screw up somehow. Tails would work, but he had trouble talking to girls, and tended to babble as if his brain had short-circuited. It wasn't his fault, he was just shy. Omega wouldn't do, he was too impersonal. That left the logical choice, Espio. Yup, that was the right choice. He'd have Espio ask Blaze to ask Sally, if shed go with him to the dance. Alright, thought the red echidna. I'd better get started now. It might take a bit of time, so to start now would be a good idea. Walking off, Knuckles began searching for the elusive purple chameleon.

It took almost 15 minutes to find the chameleon in the halls. He was talking with Shadow again, so people stayed away. Those two had an aura of "stay away' that was quite impressive. Seeing Knuckles approach, Espio nodded at Shadow. Shadow nodded back, and left. The crowds in the hall parted like a shoal of fish before a shark.

"Yes?" Espio asked Knuckles. Knuckled fumbled for a minute.

"Uh, I need a favor. See, uh, I want to ask Sally out, but I don't want to in person so..." Espio cut him off.

"You want to do a double proxy for safety and I'm the best choice?" Knuckles nodded. Espio shook his head.

"Sorry, but it won't work." Knuckles cocked his head.

"Why?" Espio smiled.

"Because you didn't get here first. Here." He handed Knuckles a folded piece of paper. Knuckles unfolded it. He knew Espio was watching him, but he didn't care. Inside was exactly what he had expected Sally would get. An invitation to the dance! From Sally herself! Knuckles dropped the paper in shock.

"Wha…Wha...Wha…How?" He asked the chameleon. Espio closed his eyes, smiling.

"Blaze came here about 5 minutes ago, and asked me to give that to you. I knew what it was immediately and simply waited for you to come to me with the same idea. And yes, you are predictable enough for me to know that you would do that." Knuckles was surprised, as usual, by the chameleon's amazing ability to figure things out.

"So, this means I can now talk to her, right?" Espio nodded. Knuckles restrained himself, and then let out a victory whoop.

"YES! Score! This is great! Thanks Espio!" the chameleon merely nodded in acknowledgement. Knuckles tore off down the corridor. He still had 10 minutes until his next class. He could find Sally in that time and accept and say thanks. This was undoubtedly the best day he had ever had!

Sally's POV

Sally walked down the corridor wither group of friends. They were chatting amongst themselves, like usual, but Sally was not joining in. Blaze was also quiet, but that was normal. Blaze didn't normally hang around with them, but every now and then she did. As they were walking, Sally thought about her day so far. She had aced a quiz, done alright in gym, and finished a project a week ahead. What was weird was that that new guy hadn't been here today. Torth, that was his name. Sally didn't exactly like him, as he was competition, but she supposed he seemed alright. He was quieter than Blaze was, though. And there was the fact that he hadn't shown up today. Sally did remember getting sort of mad at him while he was within earshot, so she supposed that maybe he had felt bad and decided to stop coming. That probably wasn't it, though. Then there had been Rouge. She had come in with a large purple bruise on her cheek and another on her shoulder. They looked harder than normal bruises and she wouldn't talk about them. Sally had decided to leave her alone. If she wanted to talk, she would. It was as simple as that. As she was pondering, Sally heard the sound of running shoes. Turning her head, she saw Knuckles making his way towards them. Fortunately, there were some people around, so he wasn't making a scene. Slipping away from her clique, she waited in the center of the hallway. He approached, out of breath and sweating slightly. Pausing for a second to catch his breath, he spoke.

"I got your invite. Sure I'll go. In fact, you beat me to it by about five minutes." He chuckled slightly. Sally smiled slightly.

"Glad you accepted. You'll pick me up around 6?" Knuckles nodded.

"Sure. That sounds good. See you then?" Sally nodded in return. With that, Knuckles dashed down the corridor, apparently heading for his next class. Sally was lucky that she had a study period this time, as she didn't exactly feel like working right now. Knuckles was the only guy she felt comfortable with, and besides, she sort of liked him. He was strong, for one thing, bright red with blaring purple eyes, long deadlocks that hung almost to his waist, and a long crooked tail. She didn't know why she liked him as much as she did, but he was sot of cute, in a rough sort of way. Sally shook her head, concentrating on the real world. She looked at her watch and sped off. She had a quiz tomorrow, and she was not going to fail it!

Tail's POV

Walking down the corridors, the two-tailed fox kept a careful eye out around him. He knew that he was a prime target for bullies, as he was small, with little way to defend himself. He could give as well as he got, sometimes, but most times Sonic was there to help him. Tails strength was in his mind, and he knew it. He was taking a number of advanced classes this semester, just to stave off boredom. He really wanted to be back in his family's garage, working on the X Tornado, or tinkering on any of his creations. Tails smiled at the thought. He loved that environment, with its smell of metal and grease, the hot flashes of the welding sparks, and quiet snips of the pliers, and the whine of the drill. To him it was as majestic as an orchestra and he sorely longed to be back amidst that organized chaos.

Tails was the only one who really understood how his machines worked. Other people would try, but they just didn't have his talent. The only one who ever really tried to understand them was Cream. She was still younger than him, but she did put an honest effort into being interested. Sighing, Tails walked down the corridor towards the main doors. At least school was over for the day. It wasn't that he didn't like school; it was that it was boring. He knew the answers to everything in the classes he was taking, and was acing everything. Straight hundreds all the way through. It was just too easy. Walking out of the doors, Tails squinted in the bright sunlight. Looking around he took in the scenery. Bright green grass, tall trees in full leaf, the glittering asphalt of the road nearby, and the ash grey of the concrete, hot from the afternoon sun. The two tailed fox was glad he had shoes, as that concrete would be blisteringly hot today. Walking down the steps from the door, Tails headed down the sidewalk. He was only a few blocks away, so he could easily walk. Normally Sonic went with him, but today the blue hedgehog said that he had Amy to deal with, as the dance was coming up. Tails grinned slightly. He'd have his hands full until he agreed to take her. Picturing the blue hedgehog running for his life from Amy made him chuckle. However, it was only a momentary laugh and then he was thinking again.

Who could he take? Tails was pondering this as he walked up the stone path to his house. Well, there wasn't anyone his age in the school, as he was several grades ahead. Plus, no one wanted to go out with him, being a young genius with two tails. So, Tails thought, that left Cream. She was the only girl that he really knew more than a passing acquaintance. Plus, he knew she liked him. The feeling was mutual, he guessed. He wasn't sure, though. He didn't really have much experience in this area, and so wasn't sure what Cream would say. Would she accept, or decline. Tails tried to figure it out now, basing his extrapolations off of previous conversations. There was an 82.763 chance that she would accept, he finalized. That left an17.237 chance that she'd decline. Tails figured those were betting odds. However, he decided not to take chances. There was some sort of machine that he could build for this… Like a card that delivered itself with a holographic interface and a partial A.I… Tails, liking the thought, headed for his garage workshop. Since his parents weren't home yet, he'd get the loud metal cutting done now, and the delicate wiring later. He was already planning the machine in his head when he reached the door. Whipping inside, he started working. Another few hours, he thought cheerfully, and he'd be done. Plenty of time left.

Cream's POV

Ding dong! The doorbell rang suddenly. Cream jumped at the sound. She'd been concentrating on her homework, working on the surface area of cylinders, and had been deep in thought.

"Cream! Can you get that?" Her mother, Vanilla, was in the kitchen. She was baking something. Whatever it was, it smelled divine. Getting up off the middle of the living room carpet where she was working, she walked through the front hall to the door. Opening the door, she was greeted with the sight of what looked like one of Tail's robots. Its head was made of three bright ice blue eyes, glowing brightly. Its arms and legs were chrome interlocking joints, giving them a smooth appearance. Its chest was a large holoscreen, currently dark. However, as she watched, the screen brightened, and glowed soft beige. Mystified, Cream looked closer. Appearing in the middle of the screen, a large brown dot was glowing. It grew into what looked like a button, and began flashing. Reaching out cautiously, she pressed her gloved finger to the center of the glowing button. Instantly, letter poured onto the screen, flashing in the seven colors of chaos. It was a brilliant display, and Cream stepped back in surprise. She read the words as they appeared. It was from Tails, inviting her to the high school fall dance! She clapped her hands in joy. Cheese, her per chao, sensed her excitement, flying around her head, waving his small arms and letting out cute chao squeaks. As the message finished, two other buttons appeared, one labeled 'yes', and the other 'no'. Quickly, Cream pressed the button labeled yes. The screen lit up again, in bright colors, spelling out a time and date. She smiled happily, as the robot then proceeded to turn and walk down the front yard path. Turning back inside, she quickly wrote down the time and date. It was two days from now, on Saturday.

Dancing inside the door, Cream let out a squeal of joy. Vanilla, startle by the noise, peered around the corner of the kitchen, watching Cream whirl around with Cheese spinning around over her head.

"Who was it?" Vanilla asked, still puzzled by her daughter's reaction. Cream paused just long enough to speak.

"Tails! He invited me to the highschool dance on Saturday!" Cream let out a shriek, and raced to her room. Vanilla stood in the corridor with a confused look on her face, then turned back to the kitchen. Whatever it was, Cream would tell her later, after she had calmed down.

Torth's POV

Reading over the poster Torth took in the information. His mind processed it quickly, forming all sorts of possible situations and ways this could go wrong. Attendance was noted as mandatory unless there were other conditions, such as medical reasons. That meant he couldn't get out of it without breaking at least his legs. He memorized the date and time of the dance before tacking the poster back on the cork board. Torth then set his mind to a way out of this mess without causing permanent damage to himself. He kept thinking about this as he started walking away from the board, not paying any attention to his surrounds. The result of this was a head on collision with a swiftly moving student. Torth spun just before he hit the floor, landing on his feet, with one hand on the floor for balance. Looking up, he took a look at the student he had collided with. She was a female bat. Torth sank into his memory, recalling that she was the one he had helped last night when she was attacked. Now she was picking herself up off the floor, glaring at him. Torth slowly coiled himself upright, picking up his fallen textbooks as he did. The bat spoke venomously.

"Can't you watch where you're going!?" She spat, glaring daggers at him. Torth held his texts in the crook of his arm.

"My apologies. I was thinking and did not see you." With that said, he turned and walked down the corridor of the intersection. However, before he could disappear from the scene, a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Turning slowly, he first stared at the hand, and then sent his gaze up the arm, to the face of its user. The bat was peering at him carefully, trying to remember something. Torth mentally sighed. This was why perfect memories were so good. He never had to strain to remember anything. Finally, the bat spoke.

"I know you from somewhere, but I can't remember it well. What's your name?" Torth stared for a moment longer, and then replied.

"My name is Torth." This didn't seem to help, as he knew it wouldn't have. Finally, after another few seconds, he spoke up again.

"This may help." Raising his hand, he willed the purple energy fire into existence. The bat stepped back involuntarily as the brilliant purple flames sprang off his skin, making it look like his forearm was on fire. Her eyes widened, and Torth knew that the memory of the past night was spilling through her mind like glacial ice water. He waited for her to be able to speak as he extinguished the flames. Before his practicing, even a few seconds would have drained him. Now, he could maintain a full body fire almost indefinably. After what seemed like an age, the bat managed to find her voice again.

"Y…You! You're the one that saved me from those other guys last night! I… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be so mean.. I just…" She sputtered for a second longer, until Torth grew tired of the conversation. He stared straight into her eyes, locking hers on his own. He had practiced hypnosis before, but this was the best trick he knew. It shut them down, stopping them from talking as they stared straight into his eyes. He did this by creating a small dancing light in the back of his retina. It didn't affect him at all, but it mesmerized anyone who looked him in the eyes when it was activated. He turned it off after a few seconds, the light returned to her eyes, and she shook her head a bit, trying to clear it. Torth stood there waiting. He would have normally, left, but he was curious as to how she would react once she could talk again. She regained that ability a second later.

"Sorry… I sort of… Blanked out there…" As she spoke, she grew more confident. "By the way, my name's Rouge." Torth nodded quickly. He stored the information quickly with the rest of the people he viewed as temporary acquaintances.

"Thank you. I apologize, but I must be leaving. I have some business outside of the school that requires my attention." Turning again, he strode off. This time, no hand fell on his shoulder. As he turned a corner, he flash stepped away. People viewing him would think he had simply vanished.

Appearing outside the school in a gust of wind, Torth blinked back into existence. The sun shone brightly, turning the asphalt of the road into what could be used as a stove. Even the plants seemed daunted in the oppressive heat. Torth cast his mind back, seeking his most soothing memory. He felt the sensation, cool liquid gliding over his entire body, a green glow encasing his world as he serenely drifted in the liquid. He remembered that he was waiting for something. However, the memory ended there. When it next started it was a time later, and he was not in that soothing green, but lying on the ground. It was a bizarre lapse that was not sure why it had happened. There was no other such incident to his knowledge, any skips or jumps. Torth pondered the lapse for a few minutes, standing stock still in the middle of the sidewalk. Finally, he snapped out of his memory. He felt the blistering heat on his body. His black clothes didn't help much. However, they were the only colors he liked. He started off down the sidewalk again, and as he reached the end he leapt gracefully into the sky, spreading his wings to their full extent, casting an enormous shadow on the ground. Having a wingspan approximately the size on a small airplane helped sometimes. Like most bats, Torth was able to fold his wings far small than they looked. While 'dormant', they appeared to be only 2 feet across. Fully extended, however, each wing was about 15 feet across. While a part of him knew that most bats chose mates depending on wing size, he did not care about his display. His wings had always been huge. However, there was also the issue that he wasn't a bat. He was a Foxbat. He didn't know any details about himself, only knew what he was. Also, he knew that his status was important, something about being the last. His information was partial, from an ancient computer he had found. It had held a file concerning foxbats, and that they were very rare creatures. However, that was all he knew.

Torth dove down, the air whistling past his large pointed ears. He vanished momentarily, reappearing just above the ground. He sped along the empty street, moving at a medium pace. As he past an intersection however, he was almost hit by a speeding car. Twisting out of the way, he let the car head on its way. It was then he noticed the flashing red and blue lights that symbolized a police car. Curious, Torth altered his flight to follow behind. Ahead, there was a plume of smoke rising thickly into the sky, like a reverse stain on a cloth. It greasily coiled upwards. Torth knew what that meant. A fire! Speeding ahead of the car, he reached the scene way before it did. He quickly took stock of the situation. A roaring fire burned away at a tall hotel. Firemen were desperately battling the flames, but they weren't doing much. He saw a girl weeping a short distance away. He had seen her at school. In fact, she was the one with the locker next to his. She was crying loudly, staring at the fire. He walked up.

"What happened here?" He asked. She spoke softly between sobs.

"It wasn't my fault. They… They were teasing me… an… and I sort of lost control of it… And I couldn't put it out." Torth quickly analyzed the situation. She meant that she was a pyrokinetic, able to create fire from her mind. Also, she had lost control of her ability when she was being teased and had indirectly caused the fire.

"Is there anyone in there?" He asked, hoping for a negative answer. However, another part of him seemed to whisper that it would be good, a chance to test his mettle. When he was fighting anything, he felt closer to the real world, not quite as separated. The cat girl, however, nodded.

"Yes… Silver... OH GOD! SILVER!!" She tried to get up and rush for the fire, but Torth pushed her down.

"Stay here. I'll go." With that, he flash stepped to the building. He ignored the firemen battling valiantly at the flames. He rushed inside. He activated his energy just in time to smash a beam that threatened to crush him. He ran up a staircase, scanning every nook and cranny for a person. At the third out of four floors, he heard a noise like someone begging for help. Dashing into the room it came from; he saw a metallic colored hedgehog using some form of energy field to hold a giant slab of flaming debris from falling on him. He was sweating and straining, and would soon be unable to hold back the giant mass. Torth dashed forward, and without thinking threw a concussive ball of energy at the mass. The ball exploded in a bright purple flare, showing even on the street. The mass was completely gone. With the weight dissipated, the hedgehog collapsed. Torth rushed forwards and grabbed the hedgehog, most likely the 'Silver' that the girl had mentioned, and dashed for the nearest wall. He hoped that it lead outside. Not having time for another energy blast, He simply punched the wall with his normal strength. Even without his energy, the result was impressive. The wall exploded outwards in a shower of plaster, woods, and ash. He saw the glint of the sun, and was outside as he flung himself and his metallic charge out the hole. Spreading his wings, he was able to slow the impact with the ground to almost nothing. Firemen clustered around, relieving him of his bundle. They quickly hooked the hedgehog up on a respirator to stop the smoke from damaging him any further. The girl, Blaze, that was her name, rushed up to the prone hedgehog, crying his name. She was quickly assured by the firefighters that he was fine, and would wake up shortly. However, she didn't leave his side. Torth stayed there, using his energy to help fight the fire, setting up glowing purple barriers around hotspots, and blasting burning sections. At one point he even leapt into the air, using his wings to send huge gusts of air strong enough to blow the fires out in places. He was careful not to fan any other fires, though. After about an hour, the blaze was conquered. The firefighters let out a cheer as the last flame guttered out under the assault of water and wind. The hotel was not in good shape, but was fixable. Torth was clapped on the back by several fighters, several of whom also shook his hand, calling him a hero. Torth deflected their praise, always heading for the edge of the group. He escaped into an alleyway a moment later. That amount of energy had taken a lot out of him, and he was now very tired. Spreading his wings, he soared upwards, heading for the building where he and Rith stayed.

Eggman's POV

"Ho ho ho!" The large red suited tyrant laughed heartily. He was surveying the new line of robots he was creating. They were infiltrators, version 2. These designs were sleeker, and less noticeable, using biological materials to create an organic machine. They were a remarkable piece of work, one that he was fiercely proud of. However, a loud crash interrupted his proud moment. Turning around, he witnessed a scene of chaos. Bocoe and Decoe had been carrying a box of spare parts from one end of the room to the other, and had collided with a running Snively, who was currently buried under a small mountain of robotic photoreceptors and hands, making muffled noises of distress. Eggman felt his blood pressure spike, and dragged his white gloved hand down his face. Why had he kept those bumbling robots around? However, after the incident on earth with Bukow and Dukow, he wasn't going to risk anything. He managed to calm himself down as Bocoe and Decoe franticly tried to pick up the robot parts that had previously been neatly stacked in their boxes. Snively had almost dug himself out. Eggman stomped over and began pulling pieces off the green suited man.

"Can't any of you do ANYTHING right?" He muttered. Snively pushed the last piece off of his legs and scrambled to his feet. Catching his breath, he managed to pant out his message.

"Uncle... Huff huff… I just got word! The Mobius Highschool is having its first dance this Saturday! I though you would want to know!" Eggman grinned. He grinned until he started laughing. He kept laughing until he couldn't anymore.

"Perfect! With this acting as a distraction to Sonic and his little gang, it will be the perfect time to launch a full scale assault!" Eggman said. "Snively! Prepare the assault force of Mecha Sonics, a division of Metal Sonics and a battalion of assorted standard mechs! Have a Shadow clone as the leader of each force! We'll succeed this time, for sure!"

Rith's POV

Listening to the doctors words from a vent in the room, Rith wrote down everything in a small notebook. Once Eggman had finished, Rith tucked the notebook away in his pocket. He shuffled around in the cramped confines of the vent, and then headed back the way he had come in. He deftly crawled over, under, and around all the laser traps in the way. Several times there were mesh screens in the way, their lattices gleaming sharply and giving off a scent of ozone. Rith teleported past these then moved on. He wasn't sure if Eggman could detect his movements, and didn't want to risk anything. He knew that jumping long distances used more energy, so only used his teleportation for short distances. It took him nearly an hour to get most of the way out. Every time he heard a noise, he froze, expecting a head to pop through one of the vent ducts, red photoreceptors gleaming as they scanned the area for him. However, he was not spotted. Rith felt the incline begin that led to the roof. He carefully climbed up, making as little noise as he could. His bare feet grabbed unto anything he could find, most often a ledge in the side of the metal walls. He climbed nearly sixty feet before seeing the glimmer of light ahead. Rith gamely continued climbing at the same unhurried pace, occasionally pausing to listen for any sign that he had been detected. After another half hour, he managed to get to the top, crawling out a hooked exhaust port on the top of Eggman's robot factory. Rith looked around, and then hopped out of the vent. He grabbed his shoes from behind another vent, and quickly shoved his feet into them. Just as he finished, he heard a metallic noise behind him. Hearing the footsteps of a mech approaching, and not having time to hide, Rith acted instinctively. He whirled around spotting the robot before it saw him. He used his ability to disrupt the movement of air particles around the robot. This stopped the robot from transmitting anything it had seen. Then, the robot straightened, alert due to the disruption of the signals it followed. Rith raced forwards, still keeping the field intact. As the robot turned to face him, Rith leapt through the air, landing on the robots head; he flipped, coming to rest on its back. As the robot pivoted to find him, he dropped the field for the split second he needed to access his power. A half second later, not enough for the robot to have sent a signal, it disappeared. Rith hadn't taken any chances. One arm of the robot now orbited Mobius's moon. The other was buried at the core of the planet. The chest appeared on the extreme north, freezing solid in a block of translucent ice. Both legs and the waist appeared at the bottom of the deepest part of Mobius's ocean. The head was dissolved into micro fragments, which sank into the lava of an active volcano on the other side of the planet. Rith dropped to the ground, exhausted. He used the last of his energy to teleport home. It as a great risk. If anything had been moved into where he was teleporting, he could die a painful death, fused with that object. However, he was lucky, he reappeared a second later in the middle of the room he shared with Torth. He fell to the ground from the few feet up he had place his entry point. He stood up, staggered over to the bed and fell in. His last thought before drifting off was that he hoped no one had seen any red flashes nearby where-ever he had done any teleporting…


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Confrontation Preparation

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Shadow winced at the sound. Looking around, he watched Sonic dash down the side corridor, with Amy in hot pursuit. He shook his head in disgust at the both of them; Amy, for such hugely public displays of affection, and Sonic for not shutting up and taking it like a man. Sighing, Shadow turned and stalked down the corridor. The people around him parted like fish before a shark. They all remembered the incident the first day he had come….

_"Hey! Where you think you're going, huh?" The tall boy laughed harshly. Shadow stood in front of the group, quietly analyzing the situation. _

"_I'm going to my class. Get out of my way." He retorted. A few people gasped. The group currently confronting the hedgehog was rumored to have seriously hurt someone last year. Nowadays, they extorted money. They were too big for the teachers to deal with, and their victims were too scared to fess up about their bruises. The Bully got a look of anger on his face, his eyebrows slanting dangerously. He let out a grunt, and pulled a pair of brass knuckles from his pocket. Then, with a sudden cry, he leapt forwards, driving the metal grips towards Shadow's face. They never hit. _

"_Chaos… __**SPEAR!**__" The bright yellow bolt of energy leapt from Shadow's palm and impacted the charging bully's chest. There was a bright flash, a sizzle, and a smell of burning flesh. Once everyone's vision returned, the bully was lying on the ground with most of his shirt burnt away as well as most of his chest fur. The skin showing went from healthy pink at the edges, to a lobster red, to red with yellow blisters, to a peeling and charred black with glistening pink showing in the cracks. The breath rattling in to the bully's mouth was slow and steady, indicating that he was unconscious. However, that wasn't the end. The other's, maddened by the loss of their leader, pulled out a variety of knuckles, knives, and chains. With a collective roar, they charged forwards. However, Shadow was far from scared. Crossing his arms in front of his face, he pulled in energy. Just as the first weapon swung towards him, he released it. _

"_Chaos… __**BLAST!**__" A huge red explosion of energy engulfed the group and most of the hallway. A few bystanders and watchers were hit as well. Anyone touched by the field was hurled back into the walls, with curling wisps of smoke curling off from their burnt clothes and hair. Shadow surveyed the carnage he had caused with a calculating glance. After a minute, when no one else tried their luck, he turned down the hallway, giving a huff of irritation. _

"_You were a waste of my time. You're nowhere near my level of combat." He vanished down the corridor, leaving a scene of charred walls, and burnt people groaning on the floor._

Since that time, everyone around Shadow hurried away. No one wanted to be the recipient of his destructive powers. This was just fine for Shadow. Those people weren't worth his time, and he ignored them. However, that was just as well. Wearing his restraining rings as he was now, he was hard pressed to even use Chaos Spear. Without the rings on, it felt like he was buzzing with barely suppressed Chaos energy waiting to be released. He could do anything at all! However, some of his stunts ended up with him falling unconscious. One had even resulted in him being in a coma for a week. The one problem was that his body simply couldn't release that much energy in a controlled manner and not feel any ill effects. That was why Gerald had made him wear the restraining rings. They clamped down on his power, only letting it out in trickles. He could use Chaos Control, and sometimes Chaos Spear, but any of his other moves, such as Chaos Blast and Chaos Lance, were beyond him. Before he had taken them off after leaving, but Gerald had caught onto that. He had installed a shock inhibitor, and an awareness circuit. The rings could now determine if they could be taken off or not. They analyzed his thoughts, determining if the situation required the full extent of his abilities. Shadow had hated that at first, but had slowly come to realize it was for his own good. With the frequency of his blackouts using all of his powers, Shadow had decided that some power was better than no power at all.

As he strode down the corridor, Shadow began thinking about the upcoming dance. He could simply claim to be deathly ill, and not show up, but that wouldn't go over well with the staff. About 3 years ago he could have simply asked Gerald for a form to get him out of this, but Gerald had died three years ago when GUN had finally brought their heavy and slow foot down on his research. Shadow had escaped, and Gerald had erased most of his accessible files on Shadow, making sure that GUN never found out Shadow's secret. So far the technique had worked, for the most part anyway. GUN had never discovered him, or if they had, not done anything about him. Sonic and his friends knew, Shadow was certain. Anyone who delved deeply enough into his past and who could metaphorically put two and two together into four would know. Those people weren't too common, however. Shadow was fine with that. People poking and prodding at him about his past didn't go over too well. He also had to avoid such things as medical examinations, as they would quickly show that he was not exactly a 'normal' mobian. This often resulted in him vanishing for a few days, claiming that he had gone away with an uncle or aunt for a few weeks. It had worked so far, with no questions asked. However, now was not the time to reminisce.

Shadow had to decide on a person to take. He thought about it. He wasn't exactly popular in the school, but that wasn't a surprise. This made the list of candidates relatively small. He thought carefully, continuing to narrow down the list. He could ask Rouge, but all she ever talked about were gems, and all she ever did was try to take his Chaos Emerald. Shadow decided against her. However, when he thought about it, she was the only free girl currently. Every other girl had their pairs lined up by now. Shadow thought carefully. Who else was left? There had to be someone. Then, an absurd possibility crossed his mind. No, no way, he thought quickly, squashing the idea before it completely formed. That was insane, plus, they'd kick him out. But then again, it could work…

Torth's POV

Leaping up, Torth dodged the blow that came his way. A quick snap of his leg and the target fell. Another blow headed for his midsection, Torth dodged low, the arm whistling over his head, He stood quickly, and smashed the next target. Doge, kick, doge, punch, dodge again. It was fun, but monotonous. He had been going at it for almost an hour, his entire gym period. He was aware of the people staring as he performed seemingly impossible feats of agility twisting and turned, flowing against the blow never letting one land. He also hadn't missed a single target. They all registered as scored. He had broken the record about ten minutes ago, but continued none the less. After another few minutes of dodge, blow, dodge, blow, the bell rang. Torth leapt off the mat. The machine slowly turned to a stop, its mechanical arms grinding to a stop and its targets returning to their resting places. It was a fantastic machine, Torth thought. It spun in place, sending randomly calculated blows at you, and presented targets for you to hit. It had several setting to start off at, but the longer you went, the harder it got. Torth had destroyed the old high score by more than a hundred. He had also lasted the longest of anyone, even despite having started at its highest setting. The targets looked a little worn out as well. Torth grabbed his sweat towel, and wiped his face. Without a backward glance, he headed for the showers.

Turning the water to its hottest setting, Torth stepped into the scalding stream of water. He let the raging torrent pulled the sweat from his body in a vicious flow. The heat was incredible, but he never flinched. The water steamed as it hit the floor, and all the mirrors fogged up in a second. After a few minutes, Torth twisted the knob back, setting it to its opposite extreme. The water changed almost instantly to frigid. The cold hit like a wave of ice, pulling any and all heat from Torth's fur. He never even shivered, though. After a few seconds, he turned the shower off and grabbed a towel. Quickly drying himself, he dressed quickly. He was out of the door before most people had even turned on the shower. Stepping into the hallway, Torth headed for the exit. With gym as his last period today, he was glad to escape to confines of the corridors. His wings ached for the sky, complaining about their being cooped up almost all day. He stopped at his locker, placing his gym clothes inside carefully. He then closed his locker, spun the lock to a random number, and headed off. He had memorized his textbooks already, and no longer needed them. In fact, judging from the tests that he had had so far, he didn't even need to attend the classes for anything except homework, and that was finished in only a few minutes.

Just as he stepped out of the school doors, Torth heard a loud commotion. Looking to his right, he saw that there was a fight in progress. A small crowd of students had gathered around, watching and cheering the combatants on. Torth peered around on of the onlookers and saw the fight was between a blue hedgehog and a black hedgehog with red stripes. The name calling amounted to being called 'faker'. Torth sighed. People like these were a waste of his time. Looking at the rule board it said that fights were strictly not allowed on school grounds. This fight was well within the grass field that belonged to the school, however, Torth guess that the teachers weren't strong enough to break up every fight. He made his decision instantly. Striding forwards, he pushed several people out of the way. Soon he was right at the edge of the fight. Reaching into the windmill of punching arms and kicking legs, he grabbed both hedgehogs by their head spines. With a great heave, he ripped them apart and held them above the ground. Both were panting heavily from their fight. The blue one tried to spin out by curling himself into a ball and rotating at high speed. Torth simply grabbed tighter. The rotations stopped immediately as his gripped hardened. The black/red hedgehog made no resistance, and merely glared at the other who was gritting his teeth in pain. Torth threw them apart. The blue hedgehog hit a tree, and slid to the ground. The black hedgehog landed on the ground and skidded for a few feet before coming to a stop. Both picked themselves up warily, watching Torth for any hostile movement. The blue on crouched to spring at him. Torth flash stepped over to him, seemingly disappearing and reappearing right in front of him. He simply stood there, glaring as coldly as he could. Behind him, He could feel the black hedgehog tense and spring. Just before he hit, Torth whirled. A mote of purple light danced above one finger, which he pointed at the onrushing hedgehog. Releasing the energy, Torth shot a thin beam of purple light which exploded against the hedgehog's chest. The black/red figure flew backwards, skidding even further this time once he had hit the ground. To Torth's surprise, the hedgehog flipped up immediately. The black figure held its arm across its chest and the fingers began glowing. Torth steeled himself. The arm flashed across the chest, outwards from the body. A yell erupted from the hedgehog's mouth while the energy leapt from his hands. "Chaos… **SPEAR!!!**"

The energy formed into a yellow bolt of energy that rocketed towards Torth. Torth concentrated on the area in front of him. As the energy burned its way through the air towards him, he visualized his energy forming a protective bubble around him. He didn't know the attack's strength, so he made the bubble as hard as he could. He poured a massive amount of energy into the shield, willing it into existence. Just before the bolt hit, Torth opened his eyes. The bolt smashed into his shield with concussive force. Torth was surprised. It was stronger than he had thought. However, not nearly enough to penetrate the shield he had created. There was a ring of purple light spreading from where the bolt was vainly trying to break through. Then, the world turned purple. A huge flash of light expanded from the shield. Torth smiled. His shields didn't just defend. They turned the attacker's energy back on them. The black hedgehog had a moment to blink his eyes to clear them from the bright light before his own bolt, strengthened by Torth's own shield, slammed into him. The hedgehog was hurled backwards into the wall of the school. The impact made a huge crater in the wall, with cracks spreading through the bricks. Torth then felt the blue hedgehog behind him. Damn! He had forgotten about him. He flash stepped to the right, and just in time. The hedgehog, spinning at high speed, sped through the space where Torth had been a split second before. The hedgehog stopped spinning and turned around. Torth placed a bemused expression on his face. The hedgehog gritted his teeth, stepped forwards… And vanished. Torth blinked. Where had he gone!?! He extended his senses, feeling. There! No, gone… There again! Gone! There! Gone! This hedgehog was incredibly fast, rivaling Torth's speed, possibly exceeding it! Instead of attacking, he waited for the attack to come. When it did, he flash stepped away, reappearing right behind the hedgehog. His hand lashed out faster than his own eyes could follow. It struck the hedgehog right between the shoulder blades. Not enough force to damage the spine, but enough to drop the hedgehog in his tracks. The blue hedgehog fell to the grass. He was still breathing heavily, but was otherwise undamaged. Torth guessed he had absorbed a large number of rings, which accounted for his incredible stamina and recuperative abilities. Torth's strength came from somewhere else, though he did not know where. The blue hedgehog spoke. "Alright, I give. I don't want to make too big a mess around here. We'll have to settle it another time, somewhere where we can REALLY let loose!" Torth was surprised, but pleased. Fighting was his forte, and chances to fight someone on an equal level as him didn't not come often. "Very well." He said. "Time and place are of your choosing." The blue hedgehog gave a roguish grin. "Heh heh, alright. How about at the Dusty Desert, Saturday, at noon?" Torth nodded. "May I ask your name? I like to know who I am fighting." The hedgehog grinned wider. "The name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog! Yours?" Torth recalled the name. "My name is Torth; Torth the Foxbat. I'll be waiting."

Sonic's POV

Walking along with Knuckles, Sonic recalled the entire fight from beginning to end for the hundredth time. "Man, he was fast! And he was pretty strong too! I bet he was holding back as well!" Knuckles shook his head ruefully. Sonic glared at him. "What?" Knuckles just chuckled. "You're getting really worked up about this guy. Let's hope he doesn't turn out like Shadow."  
At the mentions of Shadow's name, Sonic felt a headache begin. Shadow. He was a constant pain. Claiming to be the 'Ultimate Life form', the black and red hedgehog had been an unpredictable force for some time. He did what he wanted to do, rarely helping others, when he did help someone, there were usually ulterior motives. However, he was immensely powerful. Sonic honestly wasn't sure who would win if they fought all out. However, now wasn't the time to be thinking about Shadow. Sonic shook his head to clear it. "Yeah, I'm hoping that too. He looks pretty strong, so Eggman would love to get him onto his side." Knuckles nodded. "I hope he doesn't go that way. He didn't even take damage from that Chaos Spear that Shadow threw, and that's a strong attack." Knuckles rubbed his chest where the fading line of a burn mark was still slightly visible underneath the fur. He and Shadow had gotten in a fight and Knuckles had come out in bad shape. A few dozen rings patched him up good, but the Chaos Spear had left a nasty scar for a time. It had been incredibly painful.

As Sonic and Knuckles walked along the street, they continued to talk about many things. Knuckles seemed to have a small obsession with the upcoming dance on Saturday. Sonic remembered he had promised Amy under duress that he would take her, and so he would have to pick her up at 3:59. With the dance the next day, He realized he should get some snazzier clothes than his usual garb. "Hey Knux. What do ya think I should wear tomorrow?" Knuckles shrugged. "Whatever you want; I don't care." Sonic shrugged. A tux might be in order, he thought. "What are you gonna wear?" He asked the echidna. "A normal set of good clothes." Sonic laughed. Knux hated to dress up with a passion. He'd do anything to avoid it. Sonic guess that for Guardian ceremonies, the getup was a little excessive. "Well, see ya!" Sonic dashed away before Knux could reply. Running through the streets, Sonic felt the familiar rush that came with his speed. Turning corners at speed that would send a car flying, he dashed around randomly. After a few minutes, he spotted a familiar, if slightly annoying face. Shadow was walking along the sidewalk with Rouge and Omega. Sonic skidded to a halt in front of them. "What's up, faker?" Shadow sighed. "What do you want?" Sonic laughed. Shadow was always angst-ridden, although he did have his reasons. "Nothing, just asking." The black hedgehog sighed again. "Just go away. You've caused me enough trouble today." Sonic shrugged. "Whatever." He was about to disappear when another voice spoke up. "Wait!" He turned around. Rouge had walked forwards. "Listen, Sonic. That guy you challenged today, I think it would be a good idea to drop out." Sonic was astounded. Drop out of a fight! No way! "Sorry, no can do." Rouge sighed. "Listen, I've seen him once out of school. He saved me from some group of kids. They never stood a chance and there were 3 of them. Plus, he wasn't even using a tenth of his abilities. He could be tougher than you." Sonic laughed. "No one is tougher than me! I'll kick his butt all the way across the desert and back! You'll see!" With those words, he dashed off. What a joke. Rouge was probably trying to scare him. Anyways, He'd seen what that guy could do. Sonic knew he was better than that guy. And what sort of a name was 'Torth' anyway?

Amy's POV

"Where the heck is it!?!" Amy shrieked at the top of her lungs. Her new dress was missing, and she was looking for it franticly. She had to find it today, so she could get ready for tomorrow. It was a beautiful dress, made of glistening red fabric with gorgeous patters of red and pink sequins. She hunted through her closet, throwing other clothes everywhere. Her mother walked into the room and gave a heartfelt sigh. She had grown used to her daughters obsessions lately, even to that Sonic that she clung to. She almost felt sorry for the poor boy. Amy was very possessive and clingy. "Amy, are you looking for that new dress?" Amy whirled, her face flushed from exertion. "Yes! Do you know where it is!?!" Her mother paused deliberately. "The red one with all the red and pink sequins?" Amy nodded franticly. "YES!" Her mother cast a sarcastic gaze over her daughter. "You mean the one you're wearing?" Amy paused. She turned slowly to face the full length mirror in her bedroom. Sure enough, the gorgeous dress was the one she was wearing. Her memories returned, telling her that she had tried it on and completely forgot about it. Her face flushed deeper, turning her deep crimson. "Ah….. heh heh, oops…" Her mother shook her head. "Just make sure you tidy up your room before you leave… I don't want that big a mess around. You'll fall and break an ankle." Amy turned around. "Sure, sorry about the yelling…" Her mother just sighed again and looked around, trying to figure out what she should do. She had to have the outfit she would wear laid out and read, and have her room cleaned. Sighing she picked up one of the dresses and put it back in the closet. She should tidy first, so she would know where everything was. She picked up the next dress, glancing at the knee high piles of clothes all over the room. This would take a while…

A few hours later, Amy lay sprawled on the bed. The room was impeccably clean, and perfectly organized. She, however, was exhausted. Looking at her clock on the bedside table, she saw it was 8:12. She groaned. She was so tired, but had to get ready! Sighing, she pulled herself up. Changing into another dress, she carefully straightened the good one, laying it on the floor. She hunted through the bottom of her closet, careful not to make a mess. She found a set of pink shoes that went well with the dress. She also grabbed a sequined hair band. Arranging them around the dress, she smiled at the result. It would do fine, she thought.

Torth's POV

"You can't be serious!" Rith exclaimed. Upon hearing the news of Torth's upcoming fight, he had proclaimed that he was being pranked. Torth sighed and reassured Rith again. "It's true. It's at noon tomorrow, in the desert." Rith was pacing back and forth like a caged animal. "It's not a good idea. You know what might happen if-…" Torth cut him off. "I know what MIGHT happen, but I have control now. I won't let it occur again. However, if I do slip, you know what to do." Rith sighed deeply. "Yes. I know what I'll most likely have to do. It's getting harder, though; harder to control. You seriously need to start dealing with it; otherwise, I'm not going to be able to stop it one time." Torth nodded. He knew exactly what Rith meant. And he agreed that what he was risking was huge. However, he couldn't just back out now. If he did he would look like a coward. He couldn't back out now, it was impossible. He would just have to rely on his self control and, failing that, Rith's help. "All right. I need to get ready for tomorrow." Rith nodded. "Out of curiosity, just who are you going to that dance thing with? I mean, didn't the flyer say it was mandatory?" Torth froze in his track. The dance! He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts about the fight that he had completely forgotten!!! He let out an anguished groan. "Dammit! I forgot!"

Rith looked at him skeptically. "Yes, yes, I know. I have a perfect memory, so how could I have forgotten? I was preoccupied!" Torth turned around. He grabbed the flyer sitting on his bed. "There has to be a way out…" Leafing through the few pages, Torth scanned everything. His mind worked franticly, searching for any form of loophole. After a few seconds, he put the flyer down again. Sitting down on his bed, he let out a sigh. He let his mind drift over the people he knew that were still alive. None except Rith were in the city, and there were precious few females. Also, there were certainly none of his species… However, that one was a given. Turning to look at Rith, he asked. "Alright. Help me out here. How can I either get out of this or find a companion?" Rith brightened for a second, but quickly dimmed at the daunting problem. "Um, I'm really not sure for either one. You can't get out of the dance without at least a missing arm, that's for sure. Also, you don't have a thriving social life like normal people, so the second option is out. I believe, as the expression goes, your screwed…"

Torth shut his eyes and lay back. He couldn't get out of the dance, so his only option was to find someone willing to put up with him for more than a few minutes. Who had shown that tendency out of the few people he had talked to so far? Well, he could count that number on one hand. There was that cat girl he had seen outside the burning building, but that had been extenuating circumstances. There was that brown chipmunk girl; however, she seemed to favor that red echidna. Those were the only females that… Wait! There was that bat girl that he had rescued and had seen at the school. He searched his mental records for anything regarding her. Who was she, how did she act, and most importantly, was she currently free? Torth delved as deep as he could. Yes, she was, unless she had had something set up far in advance, she had never mentioned who she would be with at the dance. This was good, maybe he could ask her! "I'll be right back." Rith asked. "Where are you going? Its 8:45 at night!" Torth shrugged. "Business to take care of; I won't be long." He vanished out the door.

Flying swiftly over the tall buildings of the city center, he pulled up his mental map of the city. He also delved into his memories of helping that girl home. Overlaying the two memories, he headed towards where her house was. Landing on the street outside, he crept quietly across the lawn. He folded his wings and tail tightly against his back to make his silhouette smaller. He had to be sure she wasn't seeing anyone currently, or he would look like a fool. He did not like looking in windows, but this circumstance seemed to call for it. He slunk over to one of the ground level windows and peeked inside. A living room greeted him. Soft tones of pale green and pink were dominant. He could see an entrance to a kitchen, an office of sorts, and a hallway that undoubtedly lead to the main door. There was no sign of life around the ground floor of the house, so Torth theorized that she had to be upstairs. He thought about simply either flying up or using his repulsor boots, but decided against it. His wings would draw attention, and his boots, though silent, would emit a glow. Looking around for other options, he spotted a drain pipe. Deciding against his better judgment, he crept over to it and began climbing. Once he had made it to the second level of the house, he used the window ledges to move, dangling by his fingertips. Reaching a window, he peered in from one corner. No one there. It was a dressing room. There were racks of different clothes, ranging from mundane to outlandish, and there were some more serious types, such as the armored ninja outfit hidden behind the door. Torth raised an eyebrow, but continued on his way. A few minutes later he had made it to the next window. His fingers were starting to ache, but he ignored them. Peering in again, he took in the room. Empty again. It was a bedroom. The sheets on the bed were brilliant pink surrounded by a cool blue. The room looked like he had expected, really. Continuing on down the side of the house, he reached the next window. His fingers were in agony by now, and he knew he would fall soon. However, this was the last window. Peering through, he saw something he had not expected. A cabinet, matte black, filled with all sorts of gems. Priceless gems of almost every conceivable shape and color. There was one as large as his fist! There had to be trillions of dollars worth of gems in this room! If she could afford all of these, why was she living here in suburbia? Torth's mind flashed back to the ninja outfit. A dark suspicion crept through his mind. She didn't own these! She had stolen them! He remembered a rash of jewel thefts back a few months ago during the summer. The culprit had never been caught, but had been dressed similar to that outfit! In fact, Torth remembered seeing that large gem on display at the national museum when he had snuck in with Rith! Just then, a shadow in the room moved. Torth whole body jerked in surprise, the end result of which was his tired and sore fingers releasing the ledge and his falling off the side of the house.

Rouge's POV

THUD!! The loud noise shook Rouge awake. Startled out of a pleasant dream, it too her a few seconds to come to grips with where she was. She was in her collection room, which was where she had decided to sleep. This wasn't unusual. She enjoyed sleeping next to her beautiful gems. She remembered the noise and leapt for the window, fearing an intruder after her collection. Pulling the window up, she looked out. No one was there. She peered at the ground. Once again, there was no one there. One of the bushes was rustling, though. However, she figured that was because there was a low breeze. Still, Rouge felt like there was somewhere there. She let out an echolocation shriek, getting the image back and playing with it. No, there was no one there. However, there was a curious blank spot that she couldn't figure out She closed the window, locking it tightly. She went down the stairs to the front door, grabbing her overcoat on the way. She went outside to the side of the house. She looked around, but there was no one there. Sighing, she walked back. She was getting jumpy. It had probably been something falling in the yard next to her. That idiot had probably left a ladder standing up.

Torth's POV

Torth calmed his breath. That had been a close call. He hadn't been able to absorb any impact when he had hit the ground, so the noise was loud. He had hurled himself through the air and behind a tree. He had been just in time too, for the girl had opened the window to see what was there. A moment later she had come out the door in a housecoat, looking around. Torth had held as still as he could. Finally, she had gone back inside. Torth breathed a sigh of relief. He had been able to deflect her echolocation with a shriek of his own. It was hard to do, and any mistake would make his presence any more obvious. However, it had worked perfectly, leaving a blank spot in her mental image. However, that had been the reason she had come out. Peering around the tree, he took a glimpse at the house. No movement was visible, so he slipped out from behind the tree. Creeping across the lawn, he made it to the house wall. There, he checked the first level windows again. Once he had reassured himself that there was no one there he moved to the front of the house. There he took a look at the door. Should he ask now? Should it be in person or not? How should he word it? Torth pondered this hard. In person would be the best bet, because then he could read her facial expressions. He decided to wing it. Stepping up to the door, he rang the doorbell. A normal person would not be able to hear the melodic tones of the bell, since it was well above normal hearing range. He waited until he heard footsteps at the door. He heard the delicate mechanisms of the door handle turning as the handle was turned. He watched the crack of light appear on one side of the door. Composing himself, he prepared a statement. He was ready for anything; anything except the kick that sent him sprawling out on the lawn.

As he fell to the ground, Torth's senses maximized. He sent out a sonar wave, reading the area in front of him. His hands pushed him up off the ground and he flipped around. He landed on the side of the house. He spread his wings, covering his assailant in the dark space. He reached behind him to his tail, and ripped out one of the long spines that grew just under the fur. He flipped it around to a dagger like position. He curved his wings around the attacker, and sent them sprawling on the ground. He flash moved to right on top of them, the sharp edged spine at their throat. For a long moment, neither Torth nor his attacker moved. Finally, his senses dulled back to normal. Motion lines vanished and color faded to normal. At last he noticed whose throat he was holding a knife to. Rouge the bat lay pinned under his arm, and had her eyes wide with fear. Torth realized he was still making the same facial expression, the cold uncaring look he wore while fighting. Quickly he sprang off of her, landing in a crouch about 20 feet away. Slowly she got up. She was watching him the whole time. Torth made no sudden moves as to not alarm her. Slowly he stood, almost flowing to his feet. Feeling an apology was in order, he spoke. "Sorry" He said quietly as to not alarm her. Rouge watched him closely, as if expecting him to leap at her any second. "That's… All right… I did attack you first." Torth nodded. He saw that she was slightly pale, not something easy to notice on someone with white fur. He flash stepped to behind her and draped his coat over her shoulders. She was shaking and flinched when the coat made contact. The scene from the previous night played over in his mind. "You should head inside. You're as white as paper and shaking like a leaf."

He gently guided her to the door and onto the couch nearest the door. She sat down slowly. "You feeling okay?" he asked. She nodded. Torth looked around then flash stepped to what he thought was the kitchen. There, it was easy enough to find instant coffee, a cup, and hot water. He walked back to the couch and handed Rouge the steaming cup of instant coffee. She sipped at the drink. "Sorry about all that. I have a built in instinct that practically takes over when I'm attacked." She nodded slowly. "I understand. I'm sorry I kicked you. I was a little on edge. There was a weird noise outside a few minutes before you knocked." Torth mentally flinched. He needed an excuse quickly, before she put two and two together. "Sorry. That was me." Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What were you doing outside my house?" Torth's mind flew. "I was flying over to land on the sidewalk and ran into the power lines a block over. I was moving fast enough that I hit the ground there." Her eyes seemed a little less hostile. "Wait a minute. When I sent an echolocation wave down there, there was nothing there. What was that then?" Torth nodded. "Me again. Another built in instinct. I sent a disruption wave against your wave, creating a blank space." All the suspicion crept from her eyes. "Oh, alright. Sorry, I'm just a little paranoid about people being around my house." I bet, Torth thought. With the 'collection' upstairs, anyone would be paranoid. He decided to change the subject, but Rouge beat him to the punch. "Well, I suppose I should ask why you came here. I mean, I don't really know you, other than the time you and that other guy saved me and that time we met at school." Torth was about to speak, but once again she beat him. "Unless it's about what I think. You aren't a socialite and are a secretive person. So, this dance is a problem for you. If you don't go, the school will look into it and find out some dirty little secret about you that you want hidden. So your only solution other than hurting yourself is to find someone who you can tolerate and will tolerate you for at least an hour. If that's the case, then your options were limited, and there was only one possibility that you could think of, and that was me, since I didn't have anyone lined up for the dance either. So you quietly landed on the sidewalk and snuck around, peering in the windows to assure yourself that I didn't have anyone lined up. And just as you reached the last window on the second floor, you slipped and fell, and were trying to cover it up. Am I right?"

Torth was amazed by her deductive ability. "Very well. I'll concede to everything you said. And I'll ask in proper form if you'll accept my unspoken offer. Do accept. As you said, you're my only option." Rouge looked at him slyly. "And if I say no?" Torth played his trump card. "Then I'll have no choice but to be forced to used black mail regarding the armored suit and the large collection of gems stolen from over 6 national museums about 7 months ago." That one hit the target. Rouge's eyes widened in surprise. "W-wait a second! How do you know they're stolen? I own those!" Torth shook his head. "No, I say several of them myself at the museum about a year and a half ago." Rouge gaped. "H-how could you remember something like that? That's impossible!!! Unless…" Then Torth say the thought strike home. "…Unless you had a perfect photographic memory. That would explain why you're acing every test and quiz that happens at the school." Torth nodded. "I never forget anything. I can miss things y being preoccupied, but once something is in my head I'll always remember. So, back to my proposition. Your answer?" Torth waited while Rouge thought. He could almost see steam pouring from her ears as she worked the idea over. Finally she spoke. "Alright. I'll go with you. On one condition, though." Torth nodded. "Name it." Rouge glared menacingly. "You never tell ANYONE about those gems." Torth nodded again. "Agreed. I had no intention of that in the first place." Rouge smiled. "Then I believe we have a deal. Tomorrow at 3:45, then? That will leave plenty of time to arrive." Torth nodded sagely. "Indeed. I'll see you there. Wear something…. not too loose for the transportation. Nothing… Dangly." With that, Torth stood up and flash stepped out of the house. Spreading his wings, he leapt up into the dark, star studded sky. That went surprisingly well, he thought.

Eggman's POV

Ducking a swinging pneumatic arm carrying a number of rockets, Eggman walked along a narrow walkway near the top of the egg factory. Looking down, it was a near bottomless scene of production. The whole place seemed to glow a dull orange and brown. Looking in one place, a row of Metal Sonics was being assembled quickly. In another, groups of egg knights were coming together. Eggman relished the sight of the industry around him. It felt so natural. Walking along the narrow metal bridge, he took great pleasure in watching his creations work. Upon reaching the end of the walkway, Eggman observed his favorite part of the process. The gleaming metal automatons stepped down from the production lines and spread out in formation. Already the Metal Sonic group was almost ready. The Mecha Sonic group was nearing completion. The group of assorted mechs was growing in size quickly. Eggman stepped into a small elevator and waited as the lift carried him down to the ground level. Now he was in his private workshop area. Looking around, he saw Snively, Decoe, and Bocoe scampering around a large canister. Walking forwards with eager anticipation, Eggman took a good look at his prize. It was a long glass canister, filled with a translucent green liquid. Floating inside was his true prize. "Drain it!" He shouted to Decoe, which was standing at the control panel. The robot quickly pulled a long lever. The fluid slowly drained from the tank, going through pipes to a holding tank. Left inside was a perfect specimen. The tube slowly hissed open and the Shadow clone stepped out. Unlike its predecessor, its spikes were orange instead of red, and its eyes were green. Eggman had decided that he wanted the clones to look like his own. Real replicas were good for infiltration and shock value, but this clone was created for assault. Eggman watched the eyes spark, and a flicker of artificial light crossed through them. "Greetings, Doctor." The clone's voice was similar to Shadow's real voice, but had a more metallic tone to it. Eggman grinned widely. Fiddling with his long moustache, he patted the clone on the head. "Marvelous, simply marvelous. You'll do well. Your orders are already uploaded to your neural net, so you know what to do. Go and get acquainted with your division. If any give you trouble, well, simply deal with it in the fastest fashion." The clone nodded and walked off, its repulsor shoes clanking on the metal floor. Eggman turned to his three helpers. "Well? What are you waiting for? Awaken the other two! This force must go out on time!" Snively, Bocoe, and Decoe all ran into each other in their haste to obey the Doctor and wake up the other clones. Eggman hardly noticed. He had already turned to look up at the racks of machinery so busily clanking away, producing deadly machine after deadly machine. "Just you wait Sonic! This time I'll show you that you can't stop me! This time, you'll fail!! MUH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"


	7. Chapter 7

Alright, about time I got something on here!!!

Sorry for the long wait, I know there's at least three of you waiting, I didn't have my saves, or even a computer!!

Well, chapter seven, some good fights. A lot of spelling mistakes, pls forgive me on that, I'm rushed recently.

Well, hope you enjoy the read!

Chapter 7

Dancing with Danger

Tick. Tick. Tick. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The jarring sound of the alarm going off send Knuckles straight up, where he grabbed onto the dangling light above his bed. Looking around, he assured himself it had just been his alarm going off. Then he heard the cracking noise coming from over his head. looking up slowly, he observed the racing crack that was traveling around the light base. Before he could react, the base snapped off, sending Knuckles plummeting to the floor. He sat up quickly, trying to shake off the impact. To ad insult to injury, a large chunk of ceiling plaster fell on his head, followed by a piece of pipe, which was followed by a shower of freezing water. Knuckles, slightly daze from the multiple impacts, sat swaying for a moment. After a few minutes, Knuckles shook his head and stood up. Looking at the hole in the ceiling and the water pouring out, he sighed. That was going to have to be fixed before his dad noticed. He quickly got dressed, choosing some work clothes for the morning. Grabbing a chair from his desk, he grabbed the piece of pipe. Placing it back where it should have been he concentrated. This was difficult with an ice cold pressurized spray of water going directly at his face, but he managed. Looking at the pipe when he was finished, it was bonded back in place, the metal having melted to accommodate the pipe once more. Knuckles grinned. Sometimes, being a Guardian of the Master Emerald came in handy. The Chaos powers could be fun, although he'd have to explain to Locke why he had used them. There was no point in hiding it. As the current True Guardian, he would simply know that the powers had been used. Knuckles placed the chair back where it belonged. It was going to be a long day.

Once he had straightened up his room, tucking everything back where it belonged, Knuckles headed for the kitchen. He ate quickly, choosing fast foods, such as the leftover pasta, which he reheated in the microwave. He couldn't stand cold food that was supposed to be warm. Eating as fast as he could, he grabbed the list that was on the table. Locke had left that there before he had gone. He always left early, around 5 in the morning. Since he wasn't home, Knuckles was left to do the chores. Sometime he felt it was unfair, but Knuckles didn't really mind. After all, Locke was his father, and not many people had fathers with jobs as important as Locke. The list was longer than usual though. Apparently, there was some sort of big Guardian social event tomorrow. All the other Guardians would be there, and that meant Knuckles had to go too. Knuckles sighed. Locke may have been the true Guardian, guarding the Master Emerald from other forces, but there were other important object in the world as well. For instance, the Chaos Emeralds. So rare and hard to find, even the Guardians only had 3 of them; Red, Yellow and Grey. The other four were yet to be discovered. However, Knuckles knew that Shadow had one. He suspected the guardians knew as well, but had decided that Shadow was as good at guarding it as them, maybe better. After all, he was the official 'Ultimate Life form', the only one created. Knuckles knew that Sonic had had a Chaos Emerald for a time, but had lost it on one of his daily runs across the country, so no one knew where it was. That was Sonic for you. Give him one of the most powerful artifacts on Mobius and he looses it within a week. Knuckles smiled. Sonic had gotten a good chewing out from Locke over that. Locke was about the only person Sonic sort of listened to. No one knew why, though; maybe the fact that Sonic had used the Master Emerald once with Locke's help. Sighing, Knuckles read the list. Clean the house; cut the lawn; trim the hedge; wash the car; find his Guardian outfit. Knuckles groaned. This list would take hours, and he wouldn't be done in time to take Sally to the dance! There was only one thing to do. Grabbing the phone, knuckles called the only person who could get all of this done on time.

"What do you mean, no!!!!" Knuckles shouted. Sonic, on the other end, sighed. "I have to get ready for 12, dude. I said I'd be there, so I've gotta stretch and do that sorta stuff. Plus, its way too early to be doing chores." With that, Sonic hung up. Knuckles stood there. He was tempted to hurl the phone away, but knew then he'd have to repair the walls and apologize to the neighbor. After a few minutes of fuming, another idea hit him. Silver! He could do most of that stuff without lifting a finger! Calling the metallic colored hedgehog, he instead got Blaze. This wasn't a surprise. The pyrokinetic cat was almost always with Silver. "Hey, Blaze. Is Silver there? I've got a favor I need to ask of him." There was a slight pause before Blaze replied. "Yes, he his. Give me a minute…" Silence on the line. The Knuckle heard Blazes voice, as though far away. "Silver, honey! Knuckles wants to talk to you!" Knuckle's train of though screeched to a halt. Honey? Blaze always called Silver by his name. Likewise for Silver about Blaze. They were good friends, last he knew. When had they graduated to a relationship? Finally, Silver picked up the phone. "Hey knuckles! What is it?" Knuckles couldn't resist. "Well, Silver, honey, I need to ask a favor." He could almost feel Silver blush. "You… You heard that?" Knuckles grinned. "Yup. When did you two become an item?" Silver chuckled. "Day before yesterday. It was, well, really romantic…" Knuckles laughed. "What you mean is you finally got up the guts to ask her out?" Silver laughed nervously. "Yeah… I was really nervous, though… So anyways, what do you need?" Knuckle phrased his request. "I need someone to help me out. Dad left me a huge list of chores that I can't get done in time fore the dance, let along the fight at 12, and…" "And Sonic won't help out, so I was second choice because of what I can do, right?" Knuckles agreed. "Yes. I can't do it all on my own, and since Sonic is sorta busy, you're the only one I can think of who could help out." Silver sighed. "Alright. I'll be there shortly. You owe me, though." With that, the psychokinetic hedgehog hung up. Knuckles breathed a sigh of relief. There. With Silver's help, the chores would get done before 10. He decided to get started before Silver got here. The faster it got done, the better.

Torth's POV

BOOM!!!!! A huge spray of water arced up from the river. The enormous column seemed to hang there. A purple blade arced out, slicing the column in half. Torth stood on the shore, panting. He had been practicing most of the night. First he threw an energy ball into the water, and then sliced the resulting water column in half. He was now quite proficient at this combination. However, since his meeting with that hedgehog was in about 3 hours, it was time to rest up. He flash stepped back from the river. Looking back, the sun had just pierced the horizon, lending a glow to the river, making it look like a river of molten gold. The clouds changed from a dark blue through to a light yellow with arcs of pink. After a few minutes the occasion was over. Torth sighed and went on his way. Sunsets were always so beautiful. The change in colors from almost complete dark to the daytime norm was a fascinating sight. However, few people were up early enough to see them on a Saturday. He almost felt like it was especially for him. Smiling slightly, Torth spread his wings. Pausing before taking off, he flexed them. Spreading them to their fullest extent took up almost the whole street. Maybe he should relax in the library. He had never seen anyone else with wings like his, so maybe there would be a book that could help him.

Tucking his wings in, Torth dove towards the sidewalk. Pulling up at the last minute, he touched down as gently as a feather. His shoes made a satisfying click as they hit the pavement. Walking inside the refreshing silence of the library, he strode to the biology section. He used the library computer system to track down the book he was looking for. 'Bats: Winged Mammals; A contemporary study of biology and social structure'. Walking down the respective aisle, He quickly located the rather thick volume. Carrying the book to the reading section, Torth sat down on the thoughtfully provided couch and opened the book to the index. Apparently only a fifth of the book was devoted to the biology section. The rest of the multi thousand pages were dedicated to the social order and customs of the bat species. Torth had never been interested in learning the customs of the races he was similar to, since he knew he wasn't the same species at all. He tracked down the sections on wings. Turning to the correct page, he absorbed the information. There were anatomical drawings of wings, showing how they worked. Torth memorized these, particularly the muscle groups and pressure points. He now had more muscles to exercise and new points of attack. He read though the section entirely, absorbing every fact. Once he had finished the section, he turned back to the index. The anatomy and description of how wings worked had been interesting, but not what he had been looking for. The only relevant fact was the average wing size in males. This was registered at about 3 feet when fully extended. The largest had been 5.5 feet. Torth knew his wings had a span similar to a small plane. That was far from normal. Looking under wings, he saw there was a section on them in the social standing of bats. His curiosity aroused, he turned to the page. Reading through the passage, he was surprised at his find. Bat wing span had great application in both prestige and mating rituals! The larger your wingspan, the stronger you were supposed to be. Apparently at the once a decade matting festival, male were judged by their wingspan. Intriguing. However, this was simply more proof that he was not anywhere close to a bat in species designation.

Having re-shelved the volume, Torth left the library. He had spent about a half hour going through the book. He left the building and looked up. Closing his eyes, he pictured the diagram in the books that showed muscle groups. He felt the individual groups in his wings. Flexing them and testing their responses, he was surprised. He had been flying wrong! If this was correct, he hadn't been using half of the muscles he could have been. Gathering his wits, He pumped all relevant muscles for liftoff. The resulting force was enough to send him about sixty feet in the air. The wind generated below knocked over a bicycle and stripped several bushes of their falling leaves. Grinning widely, Torth took off, flying as quickly as he could. He speed had more than doubled! Whipping past the skyscrapers downtown he narrowly avoided running other flying citizens. One eagle let out a stream of profanity when Torth went right over his head. Curving around a building, he almost collided with a traffic helicopter. That was close, he thought. Landing on the sidewalk to avoid any other near misses, Torth took stock of his surroundings. He was downtown, near the shelter. Walking along towards his home, he took in the sight of the city. It was such a contrast. One side of the street was where the rich people walked, moving along in their expensive coats and cars, turning into fancy restaurants where the smell could drive you insane. The other side was for the poor, where people like Torth walked. This was where the beggars lived, where the homeless congregated, and where the criminals were as familiar as friends. Torth greeted every familiar face as he went along. All the muggers left him alone, since most of them had already tried and ended up all the worse for wear from the encounter. The beggars were all glad to see him, since he had helped them all out several times before. The homeless were always friendly, since he was in the same situation. They were his network almost. Any information he gleaned, any rumor he caught, was usually from the destitute. One in particular, a tortoise by the name of Tina, was the rumor hub. Seeing her just ahead, Torth picked up the pace. "Tina! How are you today?" The tortoise smiled at him. "Oh, just fine. Goodness! You grew again!" Torth smiled back. "Maybe. Any new juicy rumors for me?" Tina paused in thought. She was almost 50, but her living conditions weren't helping her mental stability. "Oh yes! I've got a good one for you! Mr. Acorn, the mayor, has announced that there will be a big charity ball in two weeks! However, it's by invitation only. Oh, what I wouldn't give to go…" The old tortoise sighed. Torth felt so sorry for her. When she had been younger, she had had a rich husband, and had lived the good life. However, he died of a premature heart attack and left his entire fortune to some unknown woman he had been having an unknown affair with. Tina had been left with nothing. Torth reached into one of his pockets. He searched for a moment and then found what he was looking for. He pulled out a leftover piece of his lunch and handed it to Tina. "Here. I saved it just for you. You need to eat well, you know." She accepted the sandwich graciously. "Thank you, hon. I was feeling a little peckish actually." Torth bid the old tortoise good bye and continued on his way.

Arriving at his room in the shelter, Torth noted that Rith wasn't there. No real surprise. Saturdays was when Rith went exploring, trying to find bargains. Sitting on the bed, Torth began concentrating. He needed to recharge from his practice. Closing his eyes, he envisioned pulling in energy. Behind his eyelids, bright purple energy drifted is colorful swirls. He visualized energy drifting around the room, floating across the window and past the door, flowing around the skyscrapers and brushing past people. Seeing this energy, he pulled at it, directing it, bending it to his will. He saw this energy float through the door and window and fade into his skin, becoming one with him. After what felt like an age, he opened his eyes. The clock, a slightly rusty version of an old alarm clock Rith had found in the garbage dump, read that he had been in a trance for almost an hour. There was little time left until the fight, only an hour. Torth unfolded his legs and walked out the door. Leaving the building, Torth spread his wings and leapt gracefully up into the sky. Quickly ascending to be above the most of the air traffic, Torth surveyed the city. It stretched almost as far as the eye could see. Overlaying his mental map, Torth quickly went east, towards the wide expanse of sand and sun known only as the Dusty Desert.

Tail's POV

Walking along the sidewalk towards, Sonic's house, Tails felt somewhat anxious. He wasn't scared at all that Sonic would lose, but still… This new guy Torth… He looked really strong. He had stopped a fight between Sonic and Shadow and hadn't even been breathing hard. Still, Tails was sure that Sonic would win. There was no way he couldn't; thought the young fox. I mean, Sonic ALWAYS wins in almost everything! Arriving at the house, Tails quickly got into his usual positive air. Knocking on the door, he stood there, rocking back and forth on his heels. He was feeling twitchy. Sonic's father answered the door. If Tails hadn't known him, he would have run screaming from the tall, powerful, and deadly looking robian. However, Jules was a nice guy. He had been captured by Eggman a long time ago and been roboticized, but still managed to keep his memories and personality through several events. He also had no desire to be de-roboticized, and was quite happy to live out his life as a robot. "Hello Tails. Come on in! Sonic is in the living room." The large robot stepped to the side to allow Tails to pass. Quickly stepping into the house, the fox, quickly removed his shoes and walked to the living room. He heard the door close behind him and felt the heavy footsteps of Jules heading for the kitchen. Seeing the speedy blue hedgehog relaxing on the couch cheered Tails immensely. Knuckles was already there. He was almost covered in grass clippings and had a few chunks of what looked like ceiling plaster stick in his dreads, but he was looking as strong as ever. Tails grinned at the memories of them all fighting Eggman together. They had been known as the 'Triple threat' back then. Nowadays they lived apart, but were still close friends. "Hey! Tails! Glad cha could make it!" Sonic's grin was infectious. Tails grinned in return. "Of course I made it! How could I not!" Sonic hopped off the couch, standing straight. "Well, now that you're here, we should get going!" tails looked around. "Just us? I thought Amy was coming too." Sonic shuddered. "I already have to spend half the day with her. Don't make it any worse than it already is!" Tails laughed. Sonic's would-be girlfriend was a bit clingy and controlling. However, she was nice. Tails knew Sonic liked her, but was too much of a guy to admit it. Knuckles started up a idle conversation as they went out of the house. Walking along the sidewalk to where Knuckles had parked his car, the three talked about anything that came to mind. As they reached the car, Knuckles and Sonic were deep into an argument about which video game hero would win in a fight to the death. The argument ended in the same way as always, with Knuckles throwing a punch at Sonic. Tails broke up the potential fight before it could begin. "Come on guys! We'll be late!" Sonic stuck out his tongue. "I'm never late!"

Driving down the highway towards the desert, Knuckles had the music blasting as loud as his car could. This meant they were almost leaving cracks in the road behind them. Tails saw several other drivers wincing as they past. Sonic and Knuckles were halfway through a heavy metal song, singing along as loud as they could, when they finally arrived. It was 11:57. Three minutes until time. Sonic jumped over the door instead of opening it. Stretching out his legs he looked back at the car. "Nice wheels, Knux! Locke's?" The echidna nodded. "Yah. He wasn't using it today, and it should be back before he knows it's gone." Sonic laughed, then went trough a series of flips to limber up. Tails stayed by the car, watching the skyline for the figure he knew would be approaching. The clock went from 11:58 to 11:59 as Tails surveyed the horizon. Checking his watch, he saw there was only 20 seconds left. This guy better show up soon! Breep! 12:00!!! Sonic scanned the area. "So where the heck is this guy, anyways?" Knuckles looked around as well. "I don't know. He seemed like the sort who would already be here…" Sonic turned to Knuckles. "Say, Knux, couldn't you, you know, use the ME's power to scan for him or something?" Knuckles shook his head. "No. Locke has been watching me a lot… If I do that I'll have a two hour lecture on the responsible use of a guardians power." Sonic winced. "Yeah, he really can go on." Tails listened to the conversation half-heartedly. His eyes were constantly scanning the area. He pulled out his bioscanner from his backpack. Turning the gadget on, he scanned the area in front of him. Strange. The scanner read that there were THREE lifeforms in the area, all in front of him. Turning on the tracking mode, he saw the lifeforms portrayed as dots. Still, there were only two dots. One was where Sonic was standing, the other where Knuckles was. Tails went back to the scan mode. He retried the device several times. Each time it registered THREE lifeforms in front of him. He didn't get it. Switching back to tracking mode, Tails saw Sonic's dot flicker, expand, and die down. Tails raised his eyebrows. There had to be something wrong with the scanner! If it was right, however, that would mean…

The sand under Sonic imploded with the force of a full scale egg fleet barrage. Sonic went flying through the air with a yell of surprise. Knuckles was sent flying backwards, where he landed heavily on a sand dune. Tails quickly shielded his face with his arms against the cloud of stinging grit. Once the wind of the implosion past, Tails looked up. A large cloud of sand particles had formed. On one side he could see Sonic, getting to his feet, and on the other Knuckles was struggling to dig himself out of the dune. However, the middle of the cloud contained a wavering shadow. Sonic sped to beside Tails. "You okay, dude?" Tails nodded. Knuckles came up beside them. "Yes, I'm fine. But look!" The shadow was moving towards them, slowly, giant forms spread from its sides, stretching to gigantic proportions. Tails involuntarily stepped back. There was something extremely menacing about the shadow, which grew clearer with each passing second. Slowly, the cloud began dissipating, allowing the three to catch a glimpse of brown and yellow fur. Tails felt his teeth start chattering slightly. Even though he knew who it was, he felt the person was easily as menacing as Shadow, maybe worse. The dust cloud then completely disappeared, leaving the figure revealed. Tails would have breathed a sigh of relief normally, but Torth was still just as menacing. His eyes had a razor sharp gaze and were almost hypnotic. His motions were smooth and calculated. He moved with a slow grace and seemed to ooze deadliness from every pore. His wings, which had apparently bee fully extended, were receding now. Tails wasn't sure how big they really were. All he knew was that the only bat he knew, Rouge, had wings that were a lot smaller than the ones displayed before him. After what seemed like an age, Torth spoke. "Well? Shall we begin?"

Fight scene (Music theme!!!) – INCUBUS – New Skin

The two combatants surveyed each other. Both stood on the tope of sand dunes, watching each other. Sonic stood in an easy stance, ready to spring into motion. Torth's wings twitched, ready to hurl him in any direction. A long moment passed. Then, a slight noise was heard, perhaps some sand shifting or a rock hitting another rock, but the noise was enough. Both fighters moved simultaneously. Shooting forwards both raised their right hand for a devastating punch. Energy from their passing flared around them, a yellow gold for Sonic and a purple black for Torth. Both fighters leapt into the air, one arm forward for balance and the other cocked and ready. There was a magic moment where both of them seemed to stop and hover there, immortals in time and space, a perfect picture of battle. Then the moment continued. The two slammed into each other. The resulting blast of power sent sand flying high into the sky. Both had caught their opponent's punch and were holding it in one hand while striving to drive theirs through the opponents grasp. Power coalesced around the combatants, showing in a dual colored aura that blazed out of control. Sonic's side was a vibrant yellow in sharp spike formations, while Torth's was purple and black in the form of flames. The energy grew stronger and stronger, making sand dunes throw stark shadows across the midday ground. Sonic grimaced as the energy became unbearable. Torth's face showed no expression, but his grip tightened. The energy reached a flash point and exploded, hurling the two apart and smashing them into the dunes. Sonic pushed his way out of the mound of sand while Torth simply spread his wings, which sent sand exploding from him in a dark cloud. He leapt up into the sky, his wings giving powerful beats which sent him spiraling up. He then plunged down, his wings moving faster, making him pick up speed. He then tucked his wings in and shot like an arrow. He punched out a fist at the last moment, Sonic attempted to block, but the sheer of the move sent him skidding along the ground. Torth rolled when he hit the ground, running at Sonic even as he stood up. The blue hedgehog leapt to his feet and shot forwards. He tucked into a ball, entering super-spin mode. Torth dodged the spined ball by leaning to the side. He turned around, and braced. Sonic, who had turned around in midair, rushed at the solidly planted Foxbat. The ball or blue fur and spikes met with the brown and yellow arm. The gauntlets seemed to glow as sheets of sparks leapt off the concealed metal plates which had been under the brown leather. Torth opened his mouth in a snarl and pushed forwards. Sonic was sent flying backwards as his own force was overpowered by the Foxbat's strength. The hedgehog landed in a crouch and sped forwards, his legs forming an infinity sign as he reached maximum speed. He appeared as nothing more than a blue blur, a streak of cyan light heading straight for Torth. Instead of dodging, the Foxbat leapt to his maximum speed, flash stepping forwards. Overall speed was equal, and the two forces met in a full of collision. The resulting explosion formed a huge crater, the center of which was made up of blacked glass. The two combatants stopped their battle for a moment. Sonic let out a low sliding whistle at the sight of the crater. Torth looked mildly surprised. The two locked eyes after a moment. The air grew tense as the two stared at each other. Then they both leapt into the air, flying over the crater. The two bystanders watched in silent amazement at the show of force being put on by the two. The combatants exchanged blow after blow, blocking each in turn, yet waiting for the other to make his strike

Knuckle's POV

The fight continued for hours. Different blows were exchanged, moves were revealed, and by the end both of the fighters were totally exhausted. Blows were still exchanged, but both fighters seemed to be weakening. Knuckles was watching the other guy carefully, though. Even though he looked tired, he seemed… Rested. It was as if he was fighting at exactly the same level as Sonic on purpose while keeping a large reservoir of strength in reserve. He had almost the same feel to him as, well, Shadow. That couldn't be right, though, thought Knuckles. Shadow was that way because he was the 'Ultimate Lifeform', designed to have eternal youth and incredible power without ever getting tired. He slept only one day a month and could o months without eating, surviving off the chaos force around him. Knuckles, as a guardian, was able to sense these things easily, but this guy… He almost scared Knuckles. He was as fast as Sonic, maybe not over long distances, but certainly in close quarters he had the advantage. He was also strong, really strong. That time when he had blasted himself out of the sand dune with his wings… Also, it was obvious that he could fly faster than Sonic could run, and was more agile than Tails. It was as if he was a whole team on his own! Even Shadow wasn't capable of flying like Rouge or matching Omega's brute strength! That was why he had team mates. However, this Torth guy seemed not to need them. Also, there was the matter of his species. He had been called a 'Foxbat', Knuckles remembered. He had never heard of that species name, or even heard about anything that looked remotely like Torth! Wings, big wings; a long fox tail; long ears… He had never thought a species could have all of these elements together.

As Knuckles watched the battle, Tails checked the time. He stiffened quickly, his hair standing on end. Knuckles wondered why he was worried, then looked at his own watch. It was 3:30!!! They were going to be late!! "SONIC!!!" Knuckles bellowed. The blue hedgehog turned around. "WHAT!?" He yelled back. Knuckles pointed at his watch. "IT'S 3:30!!!!" Sonic froze. Turning to Torth, Sonic stammered out a sentence. "Listen, sorry, I gotta get ready for the dance! Man, Amy's gonna be ticked off if I'm late!!!" Sonic vanished in a blue blur. Knuckles leapt into the car, while Tails piled into the driver's seat. The young fox revved the engine, peeling out towards the road in a cloud of dust. Knuckles caught a last glimpse of the Foxbat, who exploded into the sky in a single jump. Knuckles watched as the figured spread gigantic wings and rocketed off towards the city.

Torth's POV

Flying over the trackless wastes, Torth cursed himself profusely. He had been careless enough to let nearly 4 hours slip by with knowing! The city was still a distant feature on the horizon. Torth gritted his teeth and concentrated. He pulled energy from around him. There wasn't as much as in the city, but it was highly concentrated. He kept pulling in energy, more than he had during his practice session, his eyes glowing purple with barely contained energy. He could see the car fairly fling along the highway road, keeping up an impressive speed. Torth decided to prove his abilities to them, just to ensure they knew what they had been dealing with. Flying down into a steep dive, he flew right over the car, the wind from his wings creating a downdraft. Just as he reached the hood of the car, he thrust his right hand out, letting out a yell. "Chaos… CONTROL!!!" A bright purple and black portal appeared around Torth, and he vanished from the sky.

Torth appeared downtown, flying at the same speed. The flash from his arrival glared off the windows. He didn't take time to orient himself, instead simply flying as fast as he could. Whipping between skyscrapers, he narrowly avoided a collision with a traffic helicopter. He flew right under the blades, his wings barely avoiding the whirling metal beams. He avoided the rudder propeller with a twist and went spiraling out of the downdraft. Righting himself, he took off again, flying as quickly as he could. Arriving in his neighborhood, he swept down, until he was only a few feet off the ground. Landing on his feet, he ran inside. He tucked his wings closely to his sides to they didn't catch on the walls. Grabbing the doorframe of his room, he spun inside. He ripped the closet open, barely keeping it on its hinges. As Torth scrambled into his suit, he looked around the room. Rith wasn't there, which meant it might not be as late as he thought. Still, Torth wasn't going to take chances. One he was into his good clothes, he dashed out the door, slamming it on his way out. Torth took off once outside, calling up a mental map of the area. He quickly oriented himself with the direction he had to go. Thinking quickly, Torth realized he didn't have any way to Transport Rouge. He had no car, or other vehicle. He had never needed one, so he was in a spot. Then, he realized he could just use Chaos Control. That would be just as effective, and faster as well.

Torth watched the ground rush past underneath him. He was travelling at speeds normally reserved for military aircraft, and he hoped they wouldn't show up again. Since that had happened before, he was usually slower, just so he didn't trouble them. Not that it made any difference, he wouldn't stop. The clouds were a blur above him. They were a light grey, which probably meant there would be rain later in the night. Torth didn't care. Not even lightning could faze him, since he had been hit before and been fine. As he flew, he saw a glint of metal ahead of him. Swearing, Torth peered ahead. That had better not be a military plane, he thought. I don't have the time. However, as he looked, the object became clearer. It was a medium blue, and was moving fast. Torth peered closer. He could make out more of them behind the one object. Then he realized the loud was shifting, as if there were more of the high velocity object within it. Torth quickly ran through his mental profiles for object that size and who produced them. Unfortunately, he could come to only one conclusion. There were only two people able to produce machines of that size and shape that could fly. One was that fox from the school, Tails, and he was getting ready for the dance. The other was the evil genius, Dr. Eggman. Torth swore, and flew faster. If an armada was heading towards the city, it was obviously a full scale assault. Torth calculated the possible attack vectors and numbers. Since this was the first time Eggman had sent more than one Metal Sonic, which was what the blue robot has to be, against the city, his calculations couldn't be trusted to well. As Torth accelerated a black blur burst out of the cloud on top of him. The blur hit him squarely in the back, and he had no time to dodge. Torth fell with a groan as the black object forced him out of the sky.

Knuckles POV – 1/2 hour later

Walking Sally up to the school door, Knuckles could barely contain himself. He was actually holding her hand! In public! He did his best to keep his jubilation off his face, but some did leak through, pasting a smile on his face. Other couples surrounded them, their happy aura glowing in the chaos force. However, Knuckles felt slightly uneasy, almost as if there was a storm on the horizon that he couldn't see. Looking around, Knuckles saw nothing out of place. Everything was fine. Leading Sally towards the door and making small talk, he tried to shake off his unease. Once inside the gym, Knuckles almost gasped. Sally certainly did. It looked nothing like the gym at all! It was like a fancy ballroom, with chairs lining the walls, a huge amount of floor space, and a large table piled with food and drinks. Everyone was dressed to their best. Knuckles himself was in a brown traditional Guardian suit. Locke insisted that he wear it to all occasions. Knuckles didn't like it, but wore it anyways. Sally was clad in a light pink dress that Knuckles had to stop looking at simply because she was mesmerizing in it. Catching himself again, he tore his eyes away from her. Sonic was lounging in one corner of the room. Knuckles couldn't see Amy, so either Sonic had escaped or was getting a well deserved break. Quickly glancing around, Knuckles could spot almost everyone he knew in the room, with the exception of a few who had not yet arrived. Sally excused herself, wanting to talk to her friends. Knuckles cast an eye around the room for someone to talk to. Everyone was wrapped up in their conversation, except for one person.

Walking up to a fuming Rouge, Knuckles did his best to not tease. She looked furious, and Knuckles could almost see steam coming from her large ears. Standing there for a moment, Knuckles decided on the direct approach. "I take it you couldn't find a date, huh?" About 3 seconds later Knuckles was on the ground nursing a large bump on his head. Rouge was back to fuming. As Knuckles stood back up, she spoke. "No, in fact… I had a date, but he never showed. Bastard." Knuckles brushed his pants off. "Who was it? I thought everyone was taken." Rouge's glare seemed to intensify. The floor in front of her began to melt. "That new guy… I don't remember his name…" Knuckles paused. "Ummmm… Right! His name's Torth. We just got back from fighting him." Rouge turned to look at Knuckles. "Fight him? What the heck?" Knuckles stared. "You didn't know? Sonic and Torth were fighting it out in Dusty Desert about half an hour ago. It's been the talk of the school!" Rouge shrugged. "I don't pay attention to stuff like that. Where did he go afterwards?" Knuckles thought back. "He went flying towards the city when he heard what time it was. He flew right over the car and vanished. I think he can use Chaos Control. At least, that's what it looked like." Rouge blinked. "I thought only Sonic, Shadow, Silver, you, and Eggman's badniks could use that?" Knuckles nodded. "I know. I don't have enough information to make a guess. But I'm going to ask Locke to look into it. I think something of that magnitude should be brought to the Guardian's attention. Anyways, that was the last time I saw Torth. I don't know what happened to him after that. Plus, I've had an uneasy feeling all day. I'm worried that something may have happened." Rouge pursed her lips. "Could Torth's seeming disappearance have something to do with it?" Knuckles shook his head. "I don't think so. He's… Different, but I don't think he's an enemy. This is most likely something else. But I don't know what. Listen, I'm going to go phone my father. This is all bothering me."

Knuckles bid goodbye to Rouge and walked towards the door. Sally walked up to him on the way out. "What's wrong Knuckles? I saw you were talking to Rouge, now your acting weird. What's wrong?" Knuckles brushed past her. "I need to call my father. Something's wrong." Just as Knuckles past Sally, he stopped. Turning around, he faced the Acorn princess. "Listen Sally. I've got a bad feeling. When I get like this… I'm not usually wrong. Listen, if things start getting weird, just hide." Sally stared at Knuckles. "Why? What's happened?" Knuckles sighed. "That new guy, Torth. He was supposed to be Rouge's date. He never showed. I saw him about 40 minutes ago, and he was fine and heading to the city to get ready. He doesn't seem like the kind to stand anyone up. Plus, he's too strong to fall to a bunch of thugs. Something wrong." Knuckles turned and walked away towards the door.

Once outside, Knuckles pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Dialing his father's phone, he got a out of service range message. Blocking the message from his mind, he used his Guardian senses to search for his father's Chaos Ethernet channel. The Chaos Ethernet, or CE for short, was a channel for communication channel known only to the Guardians. Finding the channel, Knuckles sent a probe down it. His father replied quickly. *Knuckles, you know you should call me here* {I apologize, father, but something is wrong here.} *What is wrong, son? Do you address me as a father or as Guardian Facilitator?* {Guardian Facilitator, Father.} Knuckles felt Locke's shock over the channel. Knuckles knew that for him to address his father as Guardian facilitator meant he was worried about something important to the Guardians. Essentially, it created a level 3 alert which would be answered by a Guardian Defense Team. The punishment for abusing this was extreme, but Knuckles never had, and understood the responsibility of having such power. *What is wrong, Guardian? Report your concern* Locke was all business now. He had to treat this as an alert, Knuckles knew, since he had been addressed as Guardian. He relayed the information about the situation in a quick burst of memories. There was a short half second pause. *You were right to contact me, son, even if it was only about the newcomer using Chaos Control. But him disappearing… This is important. I am currently raising a level 2 alert status. There will be a Guardian Defense Force there in a few minutes after they gear up. Get everyone under cover and await further orders, Guardian.* Locke closed the channel from the other end, and Knuckles closed his phone. A level 2 alert was reserved for Eggman's attacks or something of similar force. Knuckles mind raced. It could be Eggman, Mogul, Ixis Naugus, Scourge… Knuckles shook himself out of his mindset. Now it was time to act.

Bursting through the doors, Knuckles surveyed the room. Taking a deep breath he prepared to yell out his warning. Just then, Sonic ran up and slapped Knuckles in the back. "Hey man! Sup? Great dance, eh! Man, you should of told me you and Sally were a thing now, you know? Anyways…" Knuckles grabbed Sonic's mouth and clamped it shut. Sonic protested, but a glare from Knuckles told the blue hedgehog how serious Knuckles was at the moment. Taking another breath, Knuckles turned back to the throng of students. "THIS IS KNUCKLES OF THE ECHIDNA GUARDIAN CORPS! WE ARE IN IMMINENT DANGER OF A THREAT LEVEL 2 ATTACK! A GUARDIANS DEFENSE FORCE ON THE WAY! BUT THEY MAY TAKE SOME TIME! EVERYONE PLEASE PROCEED TO THE EXITS AND HEAD FOR SHELTER!!! PLEASE PROCEED CLAMLY, BUT ASSUME THE WORST!!!!" There was a mass silence as Knuckles panted for breath and then the screaming started. Everyone knew that a guardian warning was a serious threat. Knuckles dodged out of the way of the mass of school kids as they stampeded out of the building. A cross looking teacher was heading towards Knuckles. "How dare you, young man! You've disrupted the entire school! Head straight to detention…" Knuckles rode right of the poor squirrel. "You are impeding a Guardian member. This is a class 4 offense and will be treated as such. This incident has been noted. After the alert has finished please proceed to the nearest outpost and turn yourself in. Any further action against this Guardian will result in immediate incapacitation as authorized by the Guardian Chapter." The teacher, suddenly realizing what she had done, tried franticly to explain, but Knuckles wasn't paying attention. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed into the public address system for the city. "This is Knuckles of the Guardians Corps. Will all citizens classified as 'Heavy hitters' please proceed to the center of the city for instructions. Thank you for your cooperation." Shutting the cell phone, Knuckles ran off, leaving the sputtering teacher all alone.

Torth's POV

While crawling out of the crater formed by his impact, Torth cough harshly. Blood spattered the ground. The impact must have done more damage than I estimated, Torth thought. He scrambled to his feet while wiping the bloody residue from his face. The black object that had tackled him was standing up on the far side of the crater. To Torth's surprise, the object looked almost exactly like one of the hedgehogs he had fought. The only differences were that his spikes and arms were orange instead of red, and the eyes were green. Torth remembered how powerful that the black hedgehog had been. Eggman had obviously cloned him somehow. Torth assumed a battle stance, and prepared for any attack. The black hedgehog leapt from the far edge of the crater, unleashing a rain of yellow energy bolts which were similar to the ones Torth had faced earlier that day. Without time to raise a shield, Torth leapt to the side, avoiding the destructive bolts. Holding out his hand, he unleashed several energy balls, their purple/black coloring seeming to suck the light out of the air. The black hedgehog deftly avoided the barrage and unleashed a larger bolt of yellow energy. Torth leapt up this time, which was good, since the bolt spread along the ground in a wave, one that could not be dodged. Spreading his wings, Torth flew up. Now he would win. Unleashing a hellish barrage of energy balls, Torth filled the air with glowing purple globes. When they hit the ground, they exploded with enough force to form another crater, this one larger. The massive number of impacts in quick succession caused the ground to break apart. The hedgehog was scraped, but nothing more. Torth was surprised at its resilience. Torth unleashed another barrage, this time more concentrated. The black hedgehog tried to dodge, but Torth flew down and blew up the ground in front of it. The energy blasts created a huge inferno. Torth smiled. There was no way that the hedgehog had survived that blast without taking severe damage. Torth didn't expect the next attack to come from below, but it did. The black hedgehog burst from the ground right in front of him, landing a nasty uppercut to Torth's head. Flying backwards, Torth used the momentum to return to the sky. His nose was bleeding from the impact, and Torth could taste the tang of his own blood. Grimacing, he watched as the black hedgehog unleashed another yellow storm. Torth dodged out of the way. Time to get serious, he thought as a bolt narrowly missed. Activating his aura, Torth dove at the hedgehog, a spearhead of purple and black flames. He slammed his shoulder into the hedgehog's chest before it had time to react. He heard the black figure grunt as it was pushed from its position. Torth leapt back and smashed his wings together in front of him. The blast stunned the hedgehog, and Torth took the opportunity to blast it with a barrage of energy balls. Nearly all the balls connected and a huge purple and black firestorm covered the ground. However, once the dust settled, Torth saw the black hedgehog was still standing. The figure grinned and finally spoke.

"Well, I must say I'm quite surprised! You're not even on my list of high priority targets and you were able to damage me to this extent!" The hedgehog was grinning widely, and insane expression that disturbed Torth greatly. The figure crouched low its hands curling into fists. Torth leapt backwards, his wings providing him with enough momentum to soar almost 40 feet back, well out of the creature's range. Still grinning, the clone hurtled forwards, it hands crackling with yellow energy. Torth deftly evaded the punches and struck back, his arcing foot connecting with the side of the hedgehog's head. The figure flew back, twirling through the air. Torth pulled his foot back, regretting that he had had to use killing force. However, the hedgehog simply cracked its neck and grinned. Torth leapt back. This was a problem. This creature was incredibly resilient. Even breaking its neck hadn't worked. Torth decided that nothing he did at his current level would do anything other than annoy the creature. Leaping into the sky, Torth headed for the city as quickly as he could. The hedgehog leapt up as well, its hover shoes bursting into life, carrying the hedgehog across the air. Torth sped up and prayed he could make it back before the creature caught up.


	8. Chapter 8

Ack! Writer's Block For The Loss! I had a horrible time with the end of this chapter. Sorry it's so late! Not much humor in here, and its gonna be serious with a lot of fighting for a bit. After that it'll calm down, I promise. Hope you enjoy the chapter! Reviews are greatly appreciated!

Chapter 8

The Eye of Terror

Rith's POV

As Rith walked down the street with his ill gotten goods, he was surprised at the lack of people. Normally there were tons of people on this street at this time of day. Thinking back, Rith tried to recall if there was anything occurring today that could account for the state of the streets. After a few minutes of pondering and almost running into a streetlight, Rith couldn't think of anything. He cursed quietly. Torth had it easier than he thought, perfect memory and all. Suddenly, Rith perked up. There had been that announcement a while back! Maybe that was it! He didn't know what it was about, though. The speaker had been broken like many of its brothers in this neighborhood. Once something broke here, it never got fixed. This was the slums, and nobody fixed anything in the slums. However, that announcement had to be the explanation! Rith smiled. He looked up and teleported to the top of the building nearest him. Once up on the roof, he began rapidly flashing in and out of existence, vanishing and reappearing across the tops of the buildings far faster than he could run. Once he got to the center of the city, Rith thought, I'll be able to ask people what the announcement was!

It was fortunate that Rith was high up, as he was the first mobian to spot the smoking projectile falling in a lazy arc from the sky. Unsure of what it was, Rith stopped teleporting. He strained his eyes trying to get a better look. However, at the distance he was at, he was unable to discern any identifying features. Rith suddenly remember what he had stolen: a pair of binoculars! My luck is great today, thought Rith as he pulled the tubes from his backpack. Focusing the binoculars on the falling object, he began adjusting the lenses. Once the object was in focus, Rith took a good look. What he saw froze his entire body. It was Torth! He looked unconscious and was falling uncontrollably. His fur was also smoking and he was hurt badly! Rith acted without a thought. Rith teleported to the area right beside the falling foxbat while doing his best to match Torth's speed perfectly. Grabbing onto Torth, he teleported the both of them to the only area he could see, the town center. Once there, he laid Torth down and began checking Torth's wounds. In his state of near panic, Rith was completely oblivious of the crowd around him. Torth was cut bad on his left arm, almost down to what could be considered bone. At least, Rith thought, I don't have to deal with broken bones. Torth's skeleton consisted of a strange crystal like substance that, for all Rith knew, was completely indestructible. Torth was bruised in a couple places, especially his torso and face. His fur was scorched, his eyes closed, and his mouth clamped in pain. "Come on, Torth," Rith muttered to the comatose foxbat, "You've taken worse than this and come up swinging. Do not let this get the best of you!"

It was at this point that Rith became aware of his surroundings. He hand teleported into the middle of a crowd of strong looking people. They were all staring at him. Rith recognized a few of the many faces around him. Sonic, the blue blur, hero of Mobius. Knuckles, the Guardian, protector of the Master Emerald. Tails, the two tailed fox, the mechanic with a higher intelligence than Eggman himself. These people and many others were gathered around him. Rith felt very self conscious. Everyone here was classed as a 'Heavy Hitter', which meant that they were the front lines of defense against Eggman. He was also classes as HH, but only just. Everyone here was one by a long shot. By the Ancient Walker's death, what have I gotten us into, thought Rith.

Sonic's POV

Sonic saw the falling object as Knuckles was detailing defense plans for protecting the city. Being bored, Sonic was watching the clouds when the black projectile came into his vision. He pointed to it and shouted to Knuckles. Knuckles reacted as Sonic thought he would, telling everyone to prepare for a bombardment. Sonic didn't think this looked like a missile or bomb, though. It looked more like a mobian falling after being hit by something. Grabbing his cell, he called Sally. "Yo, Sal!" Sonic said after she picked up, "I need a favor! Where are the Chaos Emeralds? I gotta feeling this is gonna be bad!" Sally sounded surprised. "Why?" You don't think you can handle it?" Sonic grinned. "Yeah, of course I can. But there's something weird. There's something up in the sky falling towards the city. Knuks thinks it a bomb or something, but I think it looks like a person falling. Not Eggman's usual MO to throw mobian at us, so I just want the bases covered." Sally responded quickly. "I got it. The Emeralds are at the castle. And, are you sure it's a mobian? Can you tell who it is?" "Nope," Sonic replied, "It's too far away. I'll get back to you later." Sonic shut his cell phone and looked at the object. He was just in time to see the flash of red, which was followed by another almost instantly. There was a split second pause, not enough to even count, and then the red flash was repeated right in front of him. When the glow faded and Sonic's eyes cleared from the bright light, he saw a strange black creature laying a mobian on the ground. Sonic had never seen something like this black thing. It almost resembled a hedgehog, but there were several differences. One difference was a devil tail, which curled and moved, seemingly of its own will. The head spikes were strange, much smaller than usual and clustered in the center of the hairline. Then Sonic got a look that the Mobian that was on the ground. Torth! Sonic was shocked. Last he had seen Torth, he had been flying towards the city after their battle. He knew that Torth hadn't shown up at the dance, making a furious Rouge, but this was completely unexpected. When they had fought, Sonic had figured that Torth was at least as powerful as himself, maybe as much as Shadow! To see him as wounded as he was now meant he had fought someone of extreme strength.

As Sonic contemplated these thoughts, others began acting. Knuckles was the fastest to act, his guardian training taking over. He bellowed for a medic to come attend to Torth and began scanning the skies. Tails stepped forwards to help the black creature who was trying to tend Torth's injuries. Everyone else was still in a state of shock. A medic quickly arrived in the form of Cream's mother, Vanilla. She was a nurse at the hospital nearby and had witnessed the whole thing. She ran to the fallen foxbat. She was pulling out bandages and other medical supplies when the black creature spoke. "Put those away. They won't work." Vanilla paused in her work. The black creature's voice was odd, sounding oddly distorted, as if he was talking over a bad connection on a telephone. Sonic wasn't sure what it was about the voice, but it disturbed him. While he was thinking, Vanilla responded. "I have to do something! He'll bleed to death from that cut!" She yelled. The black creature rose. "You don't understand!" He yelled back, "Torth isn't like you mobians! He's different! You can't treat him. Sonic wasn't sure what the creature was talking about until Torth was turned on his side and Sonic got a look at the cut. The first thing he noticed was that there wasn't enough blood for a cut that size. It was barely seeping at all. Secondly, the muscle visible inside the wound wasn't pink like normal muscle. It was matte black and looked almost metallic. Vanilla saw the difference too. Her reaction was the flinch in surprise. This had a bad response, however. The creature glared at her. "That's just like you people. The moment someone is different, you can't stand it. You exile us to somewhere out of your sight. You can't stand us, so you remove us. The different, the strange, the sick, and the helpless. We're all abandoned by you people!" With those words, The black creature grabbed Torth's good arm and vanished. Sonic looked around and saw that the creature had gone to the rooftop within it's sight. Sonic sighed. He would have had the same reaction, had he been in Vanilla's place. Looking at Knuckles, he tilted his head in the direction. Knuckles nodded, and Sonic got ready to run.

As Sonic was about to take the first step, a shadow fell over the center of the city. Looking up, Sonic saw the unmistakable silhouette of an Egg Cruiser. AS Sonic laid eyes on the hated insignia of the evil genius himself, bay doors on the side of cruiser opened and the familiar white robots glided down. Their skeletal figures reminded Sonic of bad times when fighting Iblis and Mephiles. That Eggman was using these designs again was bad. They were some of the toughest infantry Eggman had ever made. When the figures opened fire, everyone ran, avoiding the bolts as best they could. Sonic ran for the nearest. Before he could, a red flash appeared near it. The black creature struck at the robot with a staff. The robot seemed to fall apart at the seams, collapsing in a pile of parts. Red ring of crackling energy appeared around the creature and his staff. A red bolt lashed from the tip of the pole to the nearest robot, which vanished entirely. The creature then teleported again, appearing near another robot. Sonic grinned. This thing had some power after all. Launching himself into the air, Sonic went to work, taking own bot after bot with his spin dash. Other began fighting as well, Knuckles bashing robots apart with his fists, tails swiping at them with his dual tails. Amy pounding them with her hammer, Shadow blasting them apart with barrages of spin dashes and Chaos Spears, Rouge kicking them to pieces and taking out small groups with small bombs, and Bunnie blasting the apart with her arm cannon. However, the tide of white robots was unending. Others began appearing too, like the red missile bots, the blue cloaking bots, and the gold command bots. There were simply too many. Their combined fire seemed to fill the air. It was almost impossible to dodge every bullet and bolt. Sonic was glad he had stocked up on rings, otherwise there was no telling what condition he would be in right now if he hadn't. The bots seemed to concentrate a lot of their fire at him. Well, I am the number one enemy, thought Sonic with a him of smug pride. Theres no way these guys are taking me out. With incredibly ironic timing, a gold missile exploded next to him, knocking him off his feet. The second he was open, every bot in the area aimed right at him. Sonic was falling and couldn't dodge. Damn it, he thought, gotta think of something fast or I'm toast!

As the first bot started to open fire, a blast of purple black energy slammed into it with incredible force. The bot exploded. Before any other robot could react a voice sounded. The voice was heavy and extremely dark sounding. Sonic had never heard it before, although it bore similarities to that of Mephiles the Dark. "Chaos… Rage!" With those words, a storm of bolt blasted through almost every robot in a vicious curtain of destructive energy. As the barrage ended, only a half dozen bots were left, and those were all injured. A demonic shadow covered the ground. The black creature spun, staring at the rooftop. Sonic turned to look, as did everyone else. There stood Torth, but not Torth. His fur on his left side had turned completely black. His wing was a dark grey, and his left arm was composed of purple black flame. The change in his fur covered almost his entire body, giving him a sinister look. His mouth was twisted in a smug sneer of confidence that chilled Sonic to the bone. Worst of all was Torth's left eye. The color had changed, becoming blue instead of white on the outsides, and where his yellow irises and pupil had been was now a blank corpselike white. That eye completely paralyzed Sonic. He couldn't move, his body wouldn't obey him. The robot in front of him seemed frozen too, which was surprising. The figure seemed to pulse and every bot in the city center shivered as a invisible wave of energy poured over them. As they did, a symbol of the blue white eye formed on their forehead. They then stood at attention, saluting the sinister figure on the rooftop. Torth jumped down, his wings catching the air, allowing him to land softly. "This is all the famed Freedom Fighters are capable of?" The voice was like ice. "I'm disappointed?" From anyone else, Sonic would be enraged at those words, but from this specter, they chilled him. This thing meant every word. The black creature seemed unaffected, however. "Torth! No! Don't release him! He'll destroy everything!" Sonic was startled. Release? Did this mean whatever was appearing on Torth had this level of power and still wasn't complete? Sonic watched as the foxbat shook his head. The teeth in the smirking mouth gritted together. Torth/not Torth's left hand clamped onto the left side of his head, mercifully covering that eye. Sonic could move again, and the robots fell to the ground. The black fur and flaming arm receded, slowly pulling back towards where Torth's eye was. As Torth lowered his hand, the last remnants of the black faded into the eye, which swirled and became normal. Torth looked around at the complete carnage. Holes covered the buildings, piles of mechanical parts littered the ground, and smoke filled the air. Most prominent was the odor of chaos, an arid, metallic tang in the back of the throat. Sonic noticed that it seemed to emanate from Torth himself, as if he was channeling Chaos, raw Chaos in its purest form with no personal filters. That was dangerous. That meant you used the negative as well as the positive, something that could corrupt a person in no time. Looking over, Sonic saw Knuckles. The red echidna was frozen to the spot, his eyes shaking and his face ashen. He was staring at Torth with wide eyed horror. Something had shaken him. "What is it, echidna?" Torth's voice was normal, but was still threatening. "Does my power not meet your approval?" Knuckles stayed silent for a moment, then spoke in a hushed tone. "The Eye… The Eye of Terror… Impossible…"

Knuckle's POV

This was too much for Knuckles to handle. His already stressed mind simply could not intake any more. Eggman attacks, Torth falls from the sky in horrible shape, turns out to have weird muscles, Sonic almost dies, and Torth destroys every enemy and turns out to have the Eye of Terror! Knuckles had to tell Locke. The Eye was supposed to be a legend, a scary tale to tell the small echidna's at night to frighten them! To think that such a terrifying spectre existed, and in his lifetime to boot! Knuckles quickly organized everyone around him into groups to both patrol the area for more bots and to clean up the parts. Tails said something about making something, but Knuckles didn't catch the details. Once everyone was busy, Knuckle opened his link to the Ethernet. {Father! We must speak!} Locke was quick to reply. *Knuckles, the team is almost at your location. They are Warping now. You do not need to speak to me now.* Knuckles felt his father trying to close the channel from the other side. {NO! Father, we must speak NOW! I have witnessed an event!} *What is it Knuckles? What has you so shaken?* Knuckles paused for a minute, collecting himself. {The… The Eye of Terror, Father. I have seen it. It was in a mobian, the one I spoke of before, Torth the Foxbat. He appeared in the sky, wounded horribly. Yet, as our defenses were failing, he destroyed them all. And his left eye was the Eye.} There was a shocked moment of silence, longer than their last conversation. Locke didn't seem to be able to speak. *Son…* Knuckles knew he now had his father's full attention. That was the only time Locke ever called him son. *Son, are you 100% sure that it was the Eye? You must be sure!* {I am sure, Father. There is no doubt. No other phenomenon could shake me so deeply. One look and even Sonic was unable to move. What should I do?} *Do nothing. I will report this to the High Guardians. They must know! For a demon such as the bearer of the Eye to be loose in the city is beyond dangerous, it is apocalyptic! You will act as normal as you can, given the circumstances. Do not lose control of yourself. The last thing we need now is for you to lose yourself to Enerjak again. Play it safe, Son. Also, do not let this 'Torth' from your sight, even for a moment! Keep him near you.* With that, Locke closed the channel. Knuckles was relieved and scared at the same time. The High Guardians are the deities of the Guardians, Aurora and his own great grandfather, Athair. This meant that the issue was being taken in complete seriousness and would have the full attention of the entire Guardian Corps.

As Knuckles was thinking, and flash of green light appeared on his right. Turning Knuckles saw several Guardians standing there. Knuckles waited a few seconds, but no more warped in. He walked towards the group, which was preparing their equipment. "Guardians! Where are the rest of you?" The head of the unit turned and saluted Knuckles. "Guardian, sir! Due to some distressing new, the High Command of the Corps decided to cut back on the number being sent. We're all that's coming. Sorry sir." Knuckle's face fell. Without a full group, they would not make it. The leader of the team, seeing Knuckle's face, spoke up again. "Sir, we did bring a new piece of equipment. It's a MMEC, a Mobile Master Emerald Connection. It allows Guardians to tap into the Master Emerald no matter how far away from it they are, provided they stay within a kilometer of the MMEC and wear this wristband." The leader patted his wrist, which indeed had a wristband on it, black with pulsing green lights. "Here, Sir. I've got one for you too. No sense in pulling our punches." The leader handed Knuckles an identical band. Knuckles slapped it around his wrist, and immediately felt the power of the Master Emerald well up inside him. "Excellent! This new tech will really help! Where did it come from, though? This seems like something the Dark Legion would think of." The leader grinned. "You've got that right! They recently developed something like this to allow for battle commands to be more easily transmitted using Chaos as a medium. We got our hands on them and our Tech boys fixed them to respond and act as a channel for the Master Emerald! Much as I dislike them, the Dark Legion has the market cornered of good tech. We just improved it a little." Knuckles looked at the band on his wrist. Flickers of his many fights with the shadowy echidna known as Doctor Finitevus flashed across his memories. He wasn't comfortable wearing something that may have been made by that monster, but he didn't have a choice. If he wanted to prevail, he would need the Master Emerald's power, and he couldn't very well ask for that to be brought here. Sighing, Knuckles locked the band in place and left the team of Guardians to finish their preparations.

As Knuckles was surveying the city center, Sonic sped up beside him. "Geez, red, what's going on today? Eggman attacks, that Torth guy goes nuts, Guardians arriving, you go all quiet… What's the story here?" For once, Knuckles was glad to hear Sonic's idle chatter. "I don't know, Sonic. I just don't know." Knuckles shook his head to clear it. "Listen Sonic. I want you to gather a team of HH class mobians, all of them fast, and make up a rapid response unit. We don't know when or where Eggman will strike next, so we had better have all our bases covered. Also, send Amy over here." Sonic shivered, obviously at the thought of having to talk to Amy, but sped off with a "Let's do it to it!" Knuckles groaned. That phrase just got lamer and lamer every time Sonic said it. Gods, the guy would be saying that when he was 40, for crying out loud. His internal lament was interrupted by Amy walking towards him, hammer in hand. That hammer, called the 'Piko Piko Hammer' was almost as big as she was, but that didn't mean she wasn't dangerous. "Amy. I need to you gather up a team of HH class mobians, all of whom would be a solid core for defense. Once you've got them, bring them back here and I'll divide you into teams to cover the most important areas of the city. "Amy nodded and ran off, grinning at the expectation of possibly impressing Sonic with her fighting skill. With his organization done, Knuckles sighed in relief. That was one duty out of the way. Turning he saw Torth talking to the black creature. Shaking his head to clear it, Knuckles walked towards them. As much as he didn't want to, he would need Torth to do something. He would go with Knuckles and protect core targets, like the Castle Acorn. As he strode towards the pair, Knuckles tried to think of a way to keep Torth from fighting so that the Eye didn't appear again. But there wasn't. It was simple, really. Torth was higher the HH class. He was on a level with Sonic and Shadow, which was impressive. His sheer power would be needed in this fight.

"Torth. I'm going to need you to stay with me. We'll be covering the high priority targets, since the others are away." Torth looked at the Knuckles with a detached gaze. "Really? I'd think it's because you don't want me out of your sight until more Guardians arrive." Knuckles grimaced. "Well, that too. I'm not going to talk about it now, but you will be talked to by several high level members of the Guardians" Torth shrugged. "I have nothing to hide. They can ask away for all I truly care. What targets are we covering?" Knuckles remained stoic on the outside, but on the inside he smiled. Geez, this guy is so similar to Shadow its scary, thought Knuckles. "Well, we'll be covering the Castle Acorn. It's usually Eggman's primary target in the city. It's where the two of us should make the most difference." Torth nodded. As he did, he looked to the side and gazed in the direction of the slums. The foxbat then tuned to the black creature. "Rith, the slums are right in the way of the attack. Go and start evacuating as many people as you can to a safe place. Then find me and join the fight." The black creature, apparently named Rith, nodded and vanished in a flash of red. Knuckles blinked his eyes. "How does he do that?" Torth looked back at Knuckles. "What do you mean? He teleports and that's it." Knuckles shook his head. "I mean that he isn't using Chaos when he does that. There's no ripple afterwards." Torth shrugged. "I don't care and neither does Rith. As long as it works its good enough for us." Knuckles shelved the matter for another time. "Alright. You've fought the force, right? There's no other way you're as beat up as you are…" Knuckles trailed off as he noticed that there wasn't a single scratch on Torth's body. "Well, as you were…" Torth nodded. "I did. Most were hidden in a cloud bank, but there were lots. There were lots of Metals, too." Knuckles cursed. Normal robots were bad enough, but even two Metals were trouble. An army of them could destroy the city with practically no effort. Torth, ignoring Knuckle's distress, continued. "That's not what got me, though. I fought what seemed to be a clone of the black hedgehog I fought earlier, Shadow. He had different coloring, but his shape and power were practically the same as Shadow's." Knuckles froze. A Shadow clone! This was bad! One of those was worth a whole army of Metals in terms of sheer power! Looking at Torth, he spoke. 'And just how is it you're still alive after fighting one of those? I can't even fight one of them!" Torth shrugged. "I wasn't at full power. I damaged him quite a bit, but he may have healed. I was surprised by his power and was caught off guard." Knuckles nodded. Anyone would be caught off guard by a clone of the Ultimate Life Form. That Torth had damaged it wasn't surprising though. He had fought Sonic on an equal level, so Knuckles knew that Torth wasn't an easy opponent. While Knuckles was thinking, Torth spoke again. "Speaking of power, I need to up my power level. Do you have a Chaos Emerald with you?" Knuckles glanced at Torth. What the heck was he talking about? "No, I don't. You don't carry a thing like that around on the street." Torth tilted his head. "Then what is emitting such a massive amount of Chaos from you? I thought it was a Chaos Emerald, but it could be something else…" Torth glanced at Knuckle's wristband. Looking at the piece of Dark legion hardware, Knuckles realized that was what Torth was sensing. Still, only Guardians and certain mobians like Sonic could sense the Master Emerald's power. "What would you need Chaos energy for? You have enough around you, right?" Torth nodded. "True, the air here is abundant with the Chaos Force. However, that is enough to power my current level. If I want to be stronger I'll need a power source like a Chaos Emerald or something similar." Knuckle's eyes widened. "You mean a Super-class form? You can't use that in the city!" Torth shook his head. "No, not a Super form. Believe me, if I used that this city would be rubble in seconds. I'd just have a power increase. Think of how Shadow is more powerful when he has a Chaos Emerald to when he doesn't." Knuckles thought about it. He was sure that the Guardian team had spare bracelets, but to give one to Torth… There was no guarantee of what would happen. For all Knuckles knew, the Eye might corrupt the Master Emerald like when Finitevus cursed it. However, Torth at a higher power level would be a great asset. Giving in to logic, Knuckles directed Torth towards the Guardian team. "Guardians! I need another bracelet!" The leader looked at Knuckles, startled. "But sir! We can't give a connection to the Master Emerald out to a non-Guardian like that!" Knuckles glowered at the echidna. "He's at least a Super-class fighter and our chances will be greatly boosted if his power will be increased." Torth strode up. "I can speak for myself, thank you. Guardian, I can assure you I won't misuse the power. I'll even prevent a backwash of my own power across the link, so you needn't worry about that. I understand your concern about something like this, but the situation is not a normal one." Sighing, the Guardian opened a belt pouch and pulled out another armband. Reluctantly handing it to Torth, he said, "Make sure you don't lose or damage it. Also, give it back after the fight. We don't have too many."

Knuckles watched the foxbat lock the band in place around his arm. Looking at Torth, it was easy for Knuckles to forget what he had seen. Knuckles figured that it must be like what the rest of the guardians felt like looking at him, since he had the ability to become both Chaos Knuckles and Enerjak, and had done so before. Still, the prophecy was ominous, and its wording weighed on Knuckle's mind as he directed the guardian team where to set up their defense net. He had almost finished his moping when Torth walked back to him. "Knuckles, you mentioned putting together a rapid response unit?" Knuckles grimaced internally. "Yes, I did. However, I need you to stay with me for the high profile targets." Torth shook his head quickly. "No, not me. My friend here would be more than glad to help in rapid response, and I think you'll be hard pressed to find someone better. Rith, come over here!" Knuckles watched as the black creature, Rith apparently, walked towards them. "Yes?" Rith's voice was soft, and yet there was a buzz of energy in it, almost unhearable except to someone with the trained ears of a guardian."Rith? I'm Knuckles, the local Guardian commander." Sticking out his hand, Knuckles waited for the black creature to shake it. Instead the creature simply looked at him, both puzzled and a little frightened. Torth shook his head. "Sorry. Rith is a bit shy, and he's ended up on the wrong end of a Guardian's gauntlet a few times." Knuckles was shocked. "What? Why?" Torth looked straight at the echidna. "We're homeless, and food is scarce. We've had to take what wasn't ours many times to survive. Rith often gets the most attention due to his ability, which attracts the attention of your 'justice'." Knuckles was surprised, but decided that this wasn't the time to deal with this. "Well, Rith, I'll talk with the other guardians that are in the city. However, for now, could you join the others in the rapid response team? I'm sure you'll be able to find them without too much difficulty." Rith nodded and vanished in a bright red flash. The Guardians had also packed up and left, leaving only a single rookie behind to maintain the MMEC. Turning to Torth, Knuckles could sense waves of power flowing off of the foxbat's body. Torth was quite literally radiating energy. That's a huge drain on the ME, thought Knuckles. Hopefully that won't affect anyone else. Collecting himself, he addressed Torth. "Alright. Come with me. We're going to be the final line at Castle Acorn." Torth ignored the echidna and looked into the distance. Knuckles, annoyed at this show of disrespect, glared at the foxbat. "And what is it now?" Torth turned to look at Knuckles. "The path for the invading force leads right through the slums. Hundreds, or even thousands, will die." Knuckles looked in the direction of the poorer district. The foxbat was right. Sighing, Knuckles looked back. "I know, but there will be greater damage here. The high priority targets are all in the city…" Torth cut the echidna off. "The speakers here work, right? The ones in the slums don't. There will be people with no idea what is coming. Here there are only fighters, while women and children and elders reside in the slums. Are you telling me you'll let those people die to protect the mayor and his house?" Knuckles took an involuntary step back. He knew there were more people in the slums, but he had to protect Sally's home! Wait, what? Knuckles shook his head to clear it. He took a few deep breaths and cleared his head. He was letting his emotions get the best of him. Looking in the direction of the empty richer districts, he thought carefully. He would be disobeying a rule, but there were lives at stake. A war was fighting in his head. Torth was just standing there staring at the echidna with empty eyes, no emotions showing in him at all. Still, Knuckles thought the city center needs to be covered. Then, an idea coagulated in his mind. Turning to Torth, a new determination filled him. "Alright. I've got a new plan. I'll cover the slums and you cover the city center and Castle Acorn. My power will be less damaging than yours, whereas here there's no one around and lots of wide spaces. That should suit you fine, I think. However, do not leave the city center. I'll tell you that I'm not supposed to let you leave my sight, but I'm counting on you to protect here until I get back. Can you do that?" A small smile appeared on the foxbat's face. "Of course I can. With this connection I can cover any amount of territory. Go protect the innocents and I'll deal with the carnage. That's what you Guardian's do best, right?" Knuckles was kind of disturbed at the way Torth was smiling, but decided to leave it be. Without another word he dashed off in the directions of the slums. The army's main force would be here any minute now, and he should be there. A glance over his shoulder saw Torth flap his wings and leap into the air. Purple and Black flam coalesced around Torth's hands and the foxbat streaked off through the forest of tall skyscrapers. Looking back, Knuckles increased his speed, running along at full speed. This was going to be a long and trying day.


	9. Chapter 9

My god, an actual Update? Believe me, I'm as much in shock as you are, believe me! In the past couple months I started University, Got a Job, quit university, and started looking for a second job. Also, I had horrible writers block half way through. Sorry for the gyp on the final confrontation between Torth and, well, the Shadow-clone. I just didn't know how it would go, so I used the good old tactic of I-Didn't-Do-It. Hope this chapter is too your satisfaction, my fans (All four of you, maybe more). And yes, the flashback was fun to write. Nice to do something kind of funny after these chapters of seriousness. (Hope I wasn't too hard on Amy there, just wanted to make a point! .) Enjoy, and please review!

Chapter 9

Not-So-Stranger Danger

Sonic's POV (Music – Loop of the Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Boss theme)

A twist through the air, land, run ahead, smash through the bot, jump, spindash into another, duck under a punch, break the arm, run up the leg of a egg hammer, smash the head, leap down, run again… Getting kinda boring here, thought Sonic. These bots weren't even a challenge and no one had taken a scratch. They just seemed to be the dregs of Eggman's last invasion. Why that Torth guy had been so concerned was beyond Sonic. If he got beaten that bad by the Metal Sonic that was probably leading this group, then he had definitely overestimated the foxbat. Ducking the swing of a hammer, Sonic dashed ahead. I should take out that Metal, thought Sonic, if I do that, the rest of the bots will shut down or run; even if no one has been hurt, that doesn't mean that someone won't be by chance. Running through the melee, Sonic spotted the tell-tale blue form of the Metal, directing the forces. Sonic accelerated, preparing to spindash the metallic replica. However, the force field he ran smack into had other ideas. Sonic stood up groggily just in time to see the Metal speeding towards him. As Sonic braced himself, a red flash flared in his vision and the Metal vanished. Looking up, Sonic saw a black form dart off into the combat. A few seconds later, a red flash appeared again and another bot disappeared. Sonic tried to catch the black figure in his sight again, but couldn't see where it had gone. That was probably that Rith guy from back in the square. Looking back at where his metallic copy had been but a second ago, he saw there was not a trace of it. Looking around, Sonic noticed that the robots were still fighting. Strange, since their commander had vanished, and when that happened they usually shut down or ran away. Unless, of course, the Metal hadn't been the commander. Sonic scanned around, but couldn't see another. Puzzled, Sonic ducked a robotic fist as he thought. If the Metal hadn't been the commander, who was. As good as Sonic's reactions were, he was almost hit by the bolt of energy that hit the ground at his feet. He flipped through the air, landing a few feet away, ready to go. The robot he had evaded was a pile of scrap bolts, so that ruled out it as the attacker. Sonic eyes caught on a single figure as he looked around for his assailant. He quickly called out to the familiar face. "Shadow! Watch where you're aiming, dude! That almost hit me!" Shadow nodded. "Apologies. I'll aim better next time." The black hedgehog raised his hand again. "This time I won't miss!" A bolt of energy raced from Shadow's hand towards Sonic. Dodging to the side, Sonic let the bolt fly harmlessly past his shoulder. Looking again, Sonic saw that this couldn't be Shadow. He'd seen Shadow work for Eggman before, but he didn't look quite like this. The body was the same, but where Shadow's fur was red, this hedgehog's was bright orange. Also it had green eyes that seemed to glow. Pointing his finger at the non-Shadow, Sonic spoke. "You! You aren't Shadow. Are you doing all this!" The black hedgehog grinned. NOW Sonic was sure that this wasn't Shadow. Shadow never grinned, and he wouldn't grin like that! The whole hedgehog's face was filled with bloodlust and looked almost insane! Sonic was almost afraid, but then grinned. "Hmph! I've beat Shadow before, and if you're anything like him, I'll beat you too!" Accelerating to absurd speed from a standing start, Sonic raced forwards, his lack of presence in his previous location causing a thunderclap. I'd better finish this quickly, thought Sonic, since this guy may be a Shadow clone and he could do serious damage to the city; fortunately, doing anything quick is my specialty! Sonic changed to a spin dash in midstride right in front of the black figure. However, the discolored clone of Shadow vanished from his sight. Sonic unfurled from his spindash, landing solidly on his feet. The hedgehog had appeared a few feet away. Sonic gritted his teeth. Chaos Control, he thought. This was going to be harder than he thought.

This time the black hedgehog was the first to move. It ran forwards, raising it hands to rain energy bolts around Sonic as it accelerated. Sonic dodged them all with ease and vaulted over the charging non-Shadow. Landing behind it, Sonic spun his foot around for a kick. The hedgehog blocked with its forearm and tried to grab Sonic's ankle. Sonic pulled his foot back and around for a heel strike against the other side of its head. This strike was blocked too, but Sonic was ready for that. Flipping backwards and planting his hands on the ground, Sonic spun rapidly, sending a barrage of hyperspeed kicks against the hedgehog's defense. After a few it jumped back out of the barrage. Sonic spun back onto his feet and grinned. This guy was nothing special. He was so cocky, in fact, that he didn't notice the strike from behind that knocked him sprawling. Quickly recovering, Sonic looked around as he scrambled to his feet. His vision was a bit blurry from that hit to the back of his head, and there were two clones where there had been one. Nuts, thought Sonic, now I've got double vision! Running to where he knew the hedgehog was, he got ready to punch the fake Shadow into the past. He missed, and both Shadow's dodged in different directions. Wait up, thought Sonic, what? Now there's two of them? Just great! Sonic stood, a black hedgehog to either side. He didn't know which was which, as they were both exact duplicates of each other. Sonic smiled. "I see the Doctor's been quite busy lately! You two are quite something!" Both hedgehogs grinned that creepy grin. The one to Sonic's left spoke. "Of course he has. This time, he wins! Although, you did make one mistake. I never said that there were two of us!" Sonic ducked, expecting another attack from behind, but nothing went over him. Looking up, the one from his left was in front of him and landed a solid kick to his gut. Flying back into the wall and sliding down, Sonic grunted as the air was forced from his lungs. The hedgehog was still grinning as Sonic struggled to catch his breath. "Although, our other brother isn't with us right now. You are so easy to fool, Target number 1." That's right, thought Sonic, keep talking. Every second that hedgehog stood there flapping his lip while it's clone watched was another second for Sonic to recover and gain more energy back. To buy more time, Sonic queried the creatures. "Wait, not here? Where is your so called brother, then?" A sadistic light danced in the Shadow clones eyes. "Our brother is headed for the center of your precious city, where he will reduce everything to rubble! Everyone will die and we can keep you here to prevent you're interference!" Sonic's eyes widened. Of course! Destroying the center of the city would destroy any fall back point for the defenders and prevent regrouping of the HH teams! Sonic stood up, his breath recovered and his energy restored. "Well, I guess I'll have to deal with the two of you here and now. Too bad your brother will miss all the fun of me destroying the both of you!" The hedgehogs didn't even flinch at Sonic's sudden confidence. "Pride before the fall, blue blur. And the greater the pride, the harder the fall!" With that said, both hedgehogs charged.

Sonic leapt into the air to avoid the mad bullrush of the twins. This gave him a momentary chance to survey the battlefield. The fighting surrounded them, though none of the other combatants came near this particular fight, sensing perhaps that this was not something to be interrupted. As Sonic reached the top of his leap, he saw that the freedom fighters were winning over the bots bit by bit. Excellent, thought Sonic. That means I can concentrate on these bad boys! Looking down, Sonic saw that the non-Shadows were gone. Ground-stomping to the concrete, Sonic narrowly avoided the swings of the two black hedgehogs who had used Chaos Control to teleport to above him as he looked down. "Fool me once, but certainly not twice!" Sonic's taunt seemed to enrage the one on the right, who appeared in front of him, the punch already heading for his face. Sonic ducked and rammed his shoulder into the hedgehog's stomach. A dry cough sounded as the Shadow clone stumbled back, clutching its belly with both hands. The other clone appeared behind Sonic, its hand raised to release an energy bolt. Sonic kicked his leg back, sending the hedgehog's hand skyward to release the bolt, which rocketed into the air to collide with a robot that was hovering above the battle. The other hedgehog still hadn't recovered from Sonic's tackle, so the blue hedgehog decided to press the attack. Flipping into the air, Sonic spindashed towards the clone As it dodged right, Sonic stuck his leg out, catching the hedgehog in the throat. A dry squeak was all the black copy could squeeze out after that as it collapsed, clutching at its neck with desperate motions. Sonic spun around to meet the charge of the other, who had obviously recovered and was running towards him. As Sonic grabbed the hedgehog's fist and threw him over his shoulder, he noticed that there were differences between the two seemingly identical hedgehogs. This one always charged into close combat with a mad rush, using it's fists and brute strength. The other always tried to avoid close combat and use energy bolts of go for sneak attacks. I can use this, thought Sonic. If I know what they are going to do I can mess up their teamwork! Sonic dashed back as the brute clone crawled to its feet. It seemed to lack the grace of the other, although it could still use Chaos Control, as it demonstrated that ability by warping to right in front of Sonic and punching downward. Sonic leapt back to avoid the strike, narrowly avoiding the fist that smashed into the ground and blasted a small crater in the concrete. Man, thought Sonic, if I get hit by that I'm toast! Sonic dodged another flurry of attacks as he tried to figure out a weakness to this opponent. Looking over the shoulder of his anger opponent, he saw the other Shadow clone struggle to its feet one hand still covering its throat. It tried to say something, but wasn't able to. Rage clouding its face, it raised its free hand and released a hail of bolts from it. Sonic grinned. Of course! He could use their styles against each other! Sonic feinted to the right and the brute clone punched towards that direction Sonic was traveling. The flying energy bolts slammed into the arm of the brute clone, blowing it clean off between the shoulder and elbow. The black hedgehog bellowed in pain, sparks and a green fluid spewing from the severed arm. The other hedgehog looked on in shock, it's gaze going from its hand to the severed arm still twitching on the ground.

Sonic took the opportunity presented to smash the brute clone to the ground with the fast kick to the head and then vaulted over the falling figure. He landed in a crouch in front of the stunned bolt clone, which he smashed in the stomach with a quick punch before it could react to his leap. As it fell, Sonic spun into a back kick that sent the hedgehog flying into a slab of vertical concrete that had been displaced by a missile. The non-Shadow slammed into the concrete, sending a spider web on cracks through it, and then slumped to the ground, unconscious. To add insult to great injury, the whole slab collapsed, pouring what looked like a full ton of rock on top of the bolt clone. Sonic grinned and turned back quickly. The brute clone was still screaming over its lost arm. Green fluid still poured from the wounds, accompanied by flying sparks. As Sonic looked on, one of the sparks landed dead on into a pool of the brackish liquid, which ignited in a great explosion, the flames of which crawled up one of the streams of liquid spewing from the wound of the brute clone. Still screaming, the clone exploded in a huge blast which sent Sonic flying. As he landed, he looked up He surveyed his two opponents. All that remained was a single hand sticking from a pile of rubble and a giant crater studded with pieces of metal. Sonic smiled. "Heh heh. Guess you guys weren't the best the Doctor could do! Now to go find your brother and stop him!" With that said, Sonic dashed off into the distance, leaving the rest of the team to deal with the few remaining robots.

Shadow Clone's Perspective

Zipping through the air, Clone 01 approached the city center. His HUD displayed the distance to his target, and that number was rapidly shrinking. As the first of the skyscrapers began to spike from the ground, he slowed to decrease his collision chances. This mission was simply too easy. He was going to level this place in its entirety, starting with castle Acorn. As he flew, Clone 01 silently grumbled. His 'brothers', Clone 02 and Clone 03, were getting all the fun fighting. He was stronger than them, but he had been assigned the milk run of a mission. Letting a almost organic sounding sigh sound from his vocal processor, he sped up a little. The sooner he finished here, the sooner he could join the fight and wipe those pathetic freedom fighters off the face of the planet. Suddenly, warnings flashed all over his vision. Disoriented, he almost slammed face first into the side of one of the concrete towers. Dodging to the side and slowing down to a near stop, he checked his HUD. To his absolute shock, it displayed that both of his fellow clones were no longer transmitting their homing signals, which meant that they were no longer functioning. This was impossible! How could they have been defeated! They were less powerful than him, granted, but they should have been enough to deal with even Sonic! His introspection was so great that the purple and black bolt of fire hit him square in the chest, knocking him out of the air and slamming him into the ground. Looking up, he saw the familiar figure of the brown and yellow mobian that he had fought on the way in floating above him, black and purple flame wreathing its figure. The mobian grinned and cracked it's knuckles. "Well, well. Look who we have here. Ready for round two?"

Knuckle's Perspective

Dodging an energy blast, Knuckles landed a punch on the side of the robot firing on him. The metal plating gave way before the force of his blow and the bot crumpled. Knuckles looked around for another, but the street was empty except for the freedom fighters. All the robots had been beaten. These Metals hadn't been that tough, it was only the appearance that was frighteningly familiar. Watching as Amy bashed a robot's head in, Knuckles accessed the Guardian EtherNet. He quickly located the guardian reinforcement team where they were helping some trapped civilians to a shelter. Pulling out of the net, Knuckles saw a mobian trying to move some rubble off of a trapped senior. Knuckles strode over to help. Accessing the Chaos Force, he lifted the whole block of concrete off. Or at least he tried. Knuckles strained but was unable to move the block. Checking that he was pulling off of the Master Emerald, he was surprised by the lack of power available. Double checking, Knuckles found that there was almost no power coming down his link! Quickly jacking back into the Ethernet he contacted the Guardian team. {Guardians! Why has the power flow from the M.E. ceased?} The reply took a moment, as the Guardian he contacted was lifting a wall off a citizen. ^I'm not sure, sir. We're experiencing trouble as well and are having a hard time moving these pieces of*%$%$#$*%^. Knuckles grimaced at the sudden surge of energy that hit him from the MMEC. The impact of the massive amount of Chaos energy surging across the fully open link was like being punched in the brain. Knuckles staggered but recovered quickly. The Guardian team was completely out cold, every member unconscious from the power surging through the link having been too much for them to handle. Knuckles quickly took stock of the situation. There was only one thing that could drain the ME that fast, Torth. Knuckles had felt the draw on the Chaos Force the foxbat could exert and that applied to the ME could account for the lack of power. However, the sudden surge, or re-surge of power was more worrisome. Knuckles could only think of one option: Torth had been defeated and was either unconscious or dead. Neither option was good and Knuckles started to panic. All these questions raised another: What had beaten Torth? With that Knuckles snapped. Tapping into the Chaos Force he sent a wave towards Sonic, who would be able to hear him but not reply. {Sonic! There's a big problem! I think that Torth has been defeated and something is tearing through the center of the city! Head there with everyone you have available!} Knuckles closed the link and suddenly a gust of wind hit and Sonic was in front of him. "Really Knux? That's not good at all. I think I know what's there, though." Sonic filled Knuckles in on the fight that the blue hedgehog had won. Knuckles felt himself growing even more panicked. "A Shadow clone? And you beat the two others?" Sonic nodded. "Yeah, but they weren't too strong. The one said that the other clone was really strong, though. Any idea where Shadow is? He might be able to.." Knuckles cut Sonic off. "No, there's no time. Get us there now!" Sonic shrugged. "Alright, you're the boss right now." With that, the hedgehog grabbed Knuckles wrist and rocketed off. Knuckles shut his eyes as the landscape sped past in a giant blur. This kind of speed really wasn't fair, he thought. Sonic stopped suddenly. "We're here!" Knuckles opened his eyes. The whole area was damaged, but not badly. A few holes in the buildings, ripped up roads, destroyed signs… Nothing a few days work wouldn't fix. And sitting in the middle of the destruction was Torth, resting comfortably on a black and orange hedgehog form, which was quite obviously dead, due to the fluid leaking from it and the sparks flying from its missing arm. Torth stood up and booted the mechanical corpse to the echidna. Knuckles looked down at it and back at the foxbat. So the reason for the surge of power had been because Torth had beaten his enemy and quickly. The foxbat shrugged. "What took you so long?"

Amy's POV

One quick hammer blow and the last robot fell. Amy knocked the metallic carcass away from her and tossed her hair back from her face. The fighting had dislodged her hair band a bit and her bang were in her face. Heck, her whole head was a complete mess, and here head spines weren't neatly combed anymore! Making her hammer disappear in a puff of smoke, Amy readjusted her hair band to where it normally sat, tucking her hair back to its original position. There, she though, that's much better. Finally looking around, Amy saw the freedom fighters around taking down any still moving robot and moving some of the rubble out of the streets. Amy grimaced at the thought of more physical work. She'd done so much hard work right back there, there had to be something else to do! Amy spotted Cream dashing through the metal bodies and puddles of oily lubricant, her small arms filled with bandages and tubes of ointment. Watching the young rabbit complete her journey, Amy saw that Cream was ferrying supplies for her mother, who was patching up any injuries on the Freedom Fighters. Cheese, never far from Cream's side, floated by Amy, straining to carry a bandage roll. Amy plucked it from Cheese's grip and walked over towards where Cream and Vanilla were working. Cheese bobbed behind her in a huff and muttering, obviously upset that she has usurped his task. Placing the bandage roll on the stack Cream had brought, Amy approached Vanilla. This was the kind of job for her! Helping those who had been hurt… Maybe Sonic would come in and she would be able to bandage him up! Almost tripping over Cream in her daydream, she caught herself and spoke. "Hi, Vanilla! Do you want any help?" Vanilla looked up at her from where she was wrapping a deep cut on a Fighter's arm. Vanilla hesitated, and then replied. "Hi Amy. Well, I think it would be better if you, well, helped the other move some of the rubble from the street. If it stays there it might cause an accident." Amy frowned. "But I want to help here!" Vanilla sighed deeply. "Amy, do you remember what happened the last time you tried to help treat hurt mobians?" Amy caught on to what Vanilla was saying. "Ohhhh, yeah…"

_"Watch where you're stepping!" The Nurse holler at Amy. "I am!" Amy huffed. Sheesh. Try to help out at the hospital to impress Sonic and all it was was nag, nag, nag. Do this, don't do that, put that down, don't touch that… On and on. Amy reached the counter and picked up the basin of hot water. It wasn't like she was going to drop this. Amy turned around and started walking towards the nurse, who was changing the bandages on a burned mobian who had been in a house fire. Threading her way between the beds and tables of equipment, she expertly maneuvered around all the obstacles. She was good at this! She made it all the way to the nurse before tripping. The Basin flew from her hands as her foot skidded on one of the discarded bandages. The hot water left the basin, hanging in the air like a crystal chandelier. Then reality hit all at once. The water, boiling hot, splashed all over the nurse and the patient. Two screeches of outrage and pain filled the air. Amy noticed all this on the way down, only realizing her direction of movement at the last minute upon seeing the floor rushing towards her face. "Oh son of a…" She never had time to finish that as she fell face first into the hard tiled floor. She groaned and started to pick herself up off the floor. Then the basin fell. Right on her head. The impact sent her to the floor again for the second time in as many seconds. Cross-eyed from the meeting of her face and the floor, Amy groggily tried to pick herself up off the floor. She could her some kid laughing in the background, but her ears were ringing too much to tell. On her way up, she grabbed the bed sheet to steady herself. However, her foot skidded on a small pool of water and she went down again, this time ripping the bed spread right off, dumping the patient right on top of the nurse. Yelps of pain once again filled the air as Amy's face hit the floor for the third time with an unceremonious splat. Amy peeled her head off the floor, trying to look out at the room. Everything was spinning, and there were three of everything, so that was a lot of spinning. She laid her head back on the floor with a thud. That darned kid was still laughing…_

Snapping out of her memory, Amy looked back at Vanilla. Vanilla looked at her expectantly. Amy gulped, and shrugged, trying to look unfazed. "It was only that time! Come on, I really want to help!" Vanilla shook her head as she turned back to her work. "Amy, that was the only time because you weren't allowed to work there again. I don't want something happening here that might hurt these people. They've done enough already. If you really want to help, go and help Cream and Cheese carry supplies back over here so I can keep working." Amy sighed. "Alright. I'll do that…" Turning around, Amy saw that Cream had already dashed off for another load, cheese leading her on. Sighing, Amy plodded towards the supply cache to help carry more bandages, ointments, and splints. So much for the volunteering spirit…


	10. Chapter 10

No, I'm not dead. At least not yet. It's been a while since I've updated, so I figured that I should actually work on the story. Its past the main event, and I'm really not sure where to go with it. I'm trying to develop Torth in a more three dimensional characters. You see, he's not all about beating up robots and being monosyllabic, he can talk and does have feelings. He just doesn't share them often. Also, I know Sally seems wierd in this chap, but I've always had trouble working with her, as she's a character in the comics who always changes her mind about her personality. I also was trying to make her seem brittle and emotional, so it was even harder.

Review it, if you would, and maybe give suggestions as to where you like me to take it. I've got several directions I could go: Where did Eggman get his Shadow clones? What exactly is Torth? What is the Eye of Terror? There are other directions, but I've got these as the main ones. Examining Torth and the Eye will be more passive and give for time for school interaction and everyday life, whereas checking out the clones will be more fighting and battle. Let me know which you'd prefer and I'll see what I can do.

Not sure how long the next chapter will take. Depends on my life and how often I remember to write.

Oh, and before I forget, which would you prefer: Longer chapters less often (What I've been doing before), around 5000 words every 4-6 months; or smaller chapters more often (What I did with this one), around 2000 words every 2-3 months.

Again, reviews make me happy, please write, even something short lets me know that people do ready the results of my blood, sweat, and tears.

Chapter 10

Questions to Answers to Questions

Sally's POV

It had been nearly a month since the attack. In that month, roads had been repaired, building rebuilt, power grids fixed... Everything was back to normal, or at the very least, close to it. There was still the odd building still needing a fix, but those repairs were minor and were far down the list. Everyone had pitched in since then. Sally was walking down on of the downtown streets, not really paying attention to where she was heading. There was so much that had happened. The stress of the attack had been to much for her father, he had been forced to step down. She was elected to lead, but instead, her long lost brother Elias, who had been traveling for the past several years, decided he should return and take charge. This had worked out much better than anyone expected, since Elias's compassion and love for the city were much preferable to her Father's iron-handed tactics. Despite the damage from the attack, the long awaited computer network had been built, allowing for faster response times in emergencies. The program, N.I.C.O.L.E, had shown a bizarre tendency to act on her own, and several engineers said she was on the threshold of sentience. Sally was keeping a close eye on the program as a whole, since the idea of an AI reminded her too much of the robots Eggman was so fond of. Also, the month had seen the engagement of those two highschoolers, Silver and Blaze. While they weren't old enough to be married, they both loved each other and spent their days together. Sally sighed. Deep down, she was jealous of those two. Her love life hadn't been the greatest so far. She'd dated Sonic, but she'd screwed that one up big time. She'd dated a foreign prince, but that hadn't worked out so well, since he lived far away with his people. Knuckles had asked her out for the dance, but now he had been promoted and was horrendously busy with Guardian duties. Darn. She'd gone on this walk to escape from her thoughts, but her head seemed stuck in them.

Trudging along alone, Sally didn't take notice of her surroundings. When she finally looked up, she saw the part of town she was roaming was the old town, the poor districts. These areas had escaped the worst of the attack, so were relatively unscathed. That mobian's speech to Knuckles had helped the town here, as taxpayer dollars flooded in for a beautification campaign and many charities focused their work on the people here. Their work wasn't finished by a long shot, but it was helping. As she walked by an alley, a flitting dark shape caught her eye. It was gone by the time she looked, but when she passed the next alley and it appeared again, she grew suspicious. The third time she hastened by and she stopped just shy of the forth. She waited a second, then sprang around the corner Nothing was there, other than the garbage cans of the stores along the street and a dumpster. The voice from above caught her by surprise.

"You simply aren't fast enough to surprise me, princess." Craning her neck upwards, she saw the mobian sitting on the pipe that stretched across the alleyway. It was for the cables of the computer grid, but right now it was more of a perch. The mobian tucked his wings close and leaped down to the ground. She almost panicked, but didn't when she recognized him.

"Torth. What a surprise. I didn't know you still skulked around here." Torth only shook his head at the sarcasm.

"Say what you will, I've knocked out four muggers, a rapist, and three purse snatchers and carted them to the police station so far today, and it's not even supper yet." Looking Sally in the eyes, the foxbat's gaze was steel. "I've saved hundreds of lives in the last month, lives that would have ended if I didn't 'skulk' these streets." Sally was taken aback by the determination in his voice and the conviction of his tone. She remembered what Knuckles had told her about Torth, that he'd grown up alone on these streets. Wait... not alone...

"Where's your cohort?" She asked. "I thought you two were inseparable." Torth smiled. "He's been watching you back the moment you entered this area. He contacted me about 20 minutes ago and I came at once." Sally frowned.

"You've been following me for 20 minutes?" She said, unbelieving. "I just spotted you!" Torth shook his head.

"No, I let you see me so you would stop. I was wondering what the Acorn princess was doing in this area, so I figured I should get the answer from the source."

"You could have just asked!" Snapped Sally. Torth shrugged.

"This worked out fine as well." Sally fumed for a second, then sighed as she relaxed. At least Torth wasn't someone who would spread rumors. If anything, he was the best to dump her feelings on since he'd stay quiet.

"It's complicated. I guess I just wanted to clear my head." Torth cocked his head.

"A little dangerous to do deep thinking where people pop out of alleys with knives." Torth's expression betrayed nothing, his face a blank mask. Whatever was going on behind his eyes was a mystery to Sally. Torth's manner of speaking was almost joking, but it had a fake air to it, like it was nothing more than a distraction so he could catch people off balance.

"I know, I know. I just forgot where I was going, is all. There's just been so much happening lately, it's difficult to keep up. I mean, with that attack, my father collapsing and Elias now heading the council... It's all so confusing." Torth cocked his head slightly and spoke softly; seeming to sense that she was fragile at the moment.

"No one ever said that having a life of responsibility was easy. If it were, too many people would accept one. That you've lasted this long is a testament to your force of will, princess." He stood there, watching her quietly. Sally wasn't sure how to take in what he said. It wasn't really advice, or encouragement, or anything, really. But it did help a little.

"Thanks, I think... Though I don't think you know everything about being in a position like mine." Torth almost smiled, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"More than you think, princess. I just have a more direct method for dealing with problems. I may not have to deal with the social situations and politics that you do, but I have to deal with knife wielding thugs, thieves, and killers on a nightly basis." Sally nodded slowly. What Torth had said before made more sense now. He had a responsibility to the people around here, to keep them safe from harm. She had a responsibility to the people fo the city and her friends to keep them safe. That's what he had been trying to say.

"I get it now. Thanks for that." Torth simply nodded and turned.

"I'd best go. There's no telling what sort of scum are wandering around for me to deal with." As he was about to leap, Sally spotted something, shocked, a small scream escaped her before she could catch herself. There was a knife! A full sized knife sticking out of Torth's back! The foxbat turned his head back, noticed where her gaze was, and finally saw the knife.

"Damn it! Can't believe that I didn't notice that!" Reaching behind him, Torth firmly grabbed the knife and pulled sharply. The knife slid from his back with a slight grating noise, like it was scraping against bone. Once it was free from his back, Torth jammed it into the wall between two blocks, forcing it half its blade deep in the mortar. Sally was still staring, almost in shock both from the knife and from the complete lack of concern that Torth was showing. With the knife gone from his wound, the hole quickly closed itself, not even a single drop of blood escaping from it before it sealed itself. Sally stared in astonishment. A wound like that should have crippled, maybe even killed Torth but he hadn't even noticed it and the wound had healed in les then a few seconds!

"What... What are you!" Sally was barely able to get the words out. Not even Sonic hyped on power rings healed that quickly, and he certainly would feel a knife in his back. Torth back towards her.

"To tell the truth, I'm honestly not sure. Fast healing, unbreakable bones, a physiology that would be the death of any analyst, a connection to the powers of Chaos that even a Guardian would be envious of, and power enough to level an entire city. The only answer I have is me. I am me, princess and that's all." With that, Torth vanished from in front of Sally, disappearing faster then she could see. One moment he was there, the next he wasn't.

Sally leaned against the wall, not at all understand anything that had just happened. What exactly was Torth, if he was able to survive something like that in perfect condition? At least, she thought, he wouldn't tell anyone of the mess she was right now. She didn't want to have to deal with all of that on top of everything else. Torth's words also echoed in her head. _"No one ever said that having a life of responsibility was easy. If it were, too many people would accept one. That you've lasted this long is a testament to your force of will, princess." _It was interesting to hear anything like praise coming from someone like Torth. She'd never really met him before, but he seemed to be trustworthy, at least for now. Turning around, she saw the knife still sticking out of the wall. Pushing herself back onto her feet from where she was leaning, she took a good look at the knife. Rather non-descript, but it was a good knife, at least as far as she could tell. She grabbed the hilt and pulled it out of the wall. or at least she tried to. The knife was stuck fast. Planting her foot on the wall, she pulled harder. This time, the knife came out, along with a good chunk of mortar. Pulling to mortar off the blade, Sally saw that there actually was blood on the knife, but it didn't look normal. Deciding that examination of the blood was best saved for a time when she was clearer-headed and in a more professional setting, Sally tucked the knife away in one of her vest pockets. Besides, she had to figure how to get home from here!


End file.
